


The Leviathan

by ohdeariemegoodness



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Canon Divergence - Naruto, Fix-It of Sorts, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Uchiha Sasuke-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-20 05:18:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4775132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohdeariemegoodness/pseuds/ohdeariemegoodness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fighting may be over, but there's conflict no matter the era.  Cliché Naruto and Sasuke guarding Hogwarts fic. Post-war on both fronts.  </p><p>Or, Naruto makes magic friends, stalks Sasuke, and complains increasingly loudly about the lack of ramen at Hogwarts.  Sasuke…heals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Chamber of Secrets

Naruto can feel Sasuke’s chakra deep underneath the castle, hidden somewhere beneath the stone. Without the seal that connects them, he’d never have been able to find him, too deeply buried under layers of old, dark magic. Magic has a different feel than chakra, somehow both wilder and tamer—open to possibility, perhaps, in a way that chakra is not, but always tightly bound, restricted and formed even in its natural state. It’s almost sentient; still a tool to be used, but one that seems to call out to the user on its own. It’s all very distracting, which makes for a very effective cloaking device.

Rubbing at the seal that twists and pulses on his arm, Naruto leans back against the cold stone of the dungeon walls. He’s made it as far down as he can, but Sasuke’s chakra is deeper still. Naruto scowls. He’s going to have to go find McGonagall and ask for help, much as he hates to admit it. If Naruto doesn’t go find Sasuke and drag him up to the surface, there’s no telling how long he’ll keep hiding in whatever hole he’s found this time. 

Annoyed, Naruto huffs and starts making his way to McGonagall’s office. 

“Damn bastard,” he mutters. 

And Sasuke is a bastard, that’s for sure, but Naruto kind of misses the bastard he used to be. Even looking right into Sasuke’s face, Naruto can hardly see any sign of him—if he didn’t know better, he might be worried that Orochimaru was wearing his skin after all. 

The thought makes Naruto shudder. As he walks, he finds himself toying with the letter in his pocket. Kakashi sent it a few days ago, and Naruto needs to reply, but he doesn’t know what to say. The mission is going well, no enemy combatants, no suspicious activity, just quiet. The term starts in a few days, though, so maybe things will be more interesting once the kids arrive. 

Kakashi asked about Sasuke, though, which is the real mission, not the one Naruto is getting paid for. Although he has to complete that mission too, even if it’s boring and Naruto doesn’t want to be stuck in some giant castle with a bunch of civilians for a year. But the Sasuke thing is what’s really important, because Naruto promised to help him find peace and he’ll do that even if it takes a million boring protection missions.

Still, Naruto doesn’t really know how to tell Kakashi that he’s pretty sure Sasuke is feeling worse, not better, because at least in Konoha Naruto could still get him to talk a little bit, even if it was mostly just grunts. Now Sasuke just hides all day until Naruto finds him, and then he makes awful noises in his sleep and won’t let Naruto near him. Kakashi thought the distance would help, and maybe it will, but it’s not looking so great at the moment. 

He stops in front of the gargoyle that guards McGonagall’s office and tries to remember the password. All the passwords in this place are a pain to remember, because as far as Naruto can tell they’re all gibberish. Not to mention they change all the time. If Sasuke would help then it would be a lot easier. _Sasuke_ would never forget a password, gibberish or not. 

The problem with the report to Kakashi is that there isn’t progress yet, not that Naruto can see, and Naruto doesn’t know how to say that to Kakashi, not anymore. Before they’d left Konoha, when Sasuke was still unconscious in the hospital (sedated, restrained, and under heavy guard, despite Naruto’s many protests), Kakashi had taken Naruto aside and told him that maybe Sasuke would be better off if Naruto had killed him after all.

“Naruto,” he’d said. “Sasuke came here to die.” 

And Naruto had protested, but he’d also remembered promising Sasuke that the next time they’d fought, they’d die together. They nearly had, in the end. 

“Listen to me,” Kakashi had said, and his eyes had been so serious, more serious than Naruto had ever seen. “Sasuke came here to die, and I know you want him to live, but Naruto,” and his voice had gone very soft, “it might be better if he doesn’t have to wake up.”

“No!” Naruto had shouted. “No, I won’t let Sasuke die! Sakura and the old lady are going to save him, they said they would, and he’s going to wake up. And now he’s back here in Konoha where he belongs, and when I’m Hokage I’m going to fix all the bad stuff from before. And we can all go on missions together again! He’s my best friend, I’m not just going to let him die!”

He’d been panting by the end of the speech, and his eyes had kind of burned. He knew that they might not ever actually go on missions with Sasuke again, but that’s what Naruto wanted. The three of them together, with Sasuke being a bastard just like always, but just his regular asshole self, not all crazy and fallen apart like he’d been when they’d fought. 

Kakashi had closed his eyes and sighed, not his usual sigh, but something deeper and heavier, like a great weight was pressing down on him and forcing the air out of his lungs. It was a long time before he opened his eyes and spoke again, and when he did, it was in that same soft tone from before. 

“I had a ninken that you’ve never met,” he’d said. “His name was Kosho.” 

“What does this have to do with Sasuke?” Naruto had demanded, but Kakashi had only stared at Naruto until he was quiet before continuing. 

“He was bitten on a mission, and contracted a sickness that makes animals go mad before they die. You’ve seen it before, Naruto.” 

And Naruto had seen it before, when they’d accepted a C-Rank to help a civilian village with an outbreak of the sickness. Rabies, the civilians had called it. All Naruto had seen was madness—animals turning against each other, against their owners, against themselves. Naruto had killed one dog right before it could bite a civilian child; Naruto could remember vividly the dog’s empty, wild eyes, the bloody foam dripping from its mouth, its heavy, wet breathing. Even in its death throes, the animal had been snarling, biting and snapping at anything within reach. 

Naruto had started to see where Kakashi was going, but it wasn’t the same as with Sasuke. It wasn’t. Sasuke wasn’t crazy, he had reasons, and Naruto understood them even if he didn’t want Sasuke to do the things he did. 

“I stopped Kosho before he could attack anyone, but I didn’t kill him. I thought that at least I could hold onto him until he died naturally, so I put him in a cage, tried to make him comfortable with all his favorite toys and blankets. But he ripped through everything, even the toys he’d kept since he was a pup, and once that was done, he started on the cage itself. He tore up his mouth and his paws on the bars, and chewed on his own leg down to the bone. And I just watched it happen.”

“You did what you could! It wasn’t anyone’s fault he was sick,” Naruto told him, but he just shook his head.

“It didn’t matter whose fault it was, Naruto. I wanted to comfort him, and I wanted to save him, but I couldn’t do either of those things. It wasn’t his fault. If anything it was mine, because I’m the one who summoned him on that mission. But it didn’t matter. In the end, it was painful just for him to exist, and nothing I did for him helped. He didn’t even know who I was.”

“Did you…kill him?” Naruto whispered. 

Kakashi shook his head again, eyes lowered. “No.” 

“Well, see! And I won’t kill Sasuke either, because—”

“I didn’t kill him,” Kakashi interrupted, “but I wish that I had. From the moment he’d been bitten, the Kosho I’d known was gone and could never come back. But instead, I watched as what was left of him suffered. He died in pain and without dignity, Naruto, and that was my fault. You know that I don’t want Sasuke to die. I’ve already signed his pardon. But,” and Naruto had opened his mouth to say something, anything, he didn’t know what, but Kakashi had silenced him by holding up his hand. 

“But,” he repeated, “Konoha is not his home anymore, and there’s a reason for that. Sasuke has been suffering for a long time, now. He recognized his own darkness, Naruto, and he came to you to end it.”

Naruto knew Kakashi was right about some things, but he also knew in his heart that he was wrong about killing Sasuke. Killing Sasuke wouldn’t help anyone, especially not Sasuke, but for once, Naruto couldn’t find the words to explain it. 

“Maybe you can find a way where no one else has,” Kakashi had sighed. “If nothing else, you’re still Konoha’s number one most unpredictable ninja. But promise me you’ll think about it, and that you’ll think about whether you want Sasuke alive because you want a person he can’t be anymore. It can be cruel to keep someone alive, Naruto, just because you don’t want them to die.” 

Naruto had promised, and Kakashi had left. But Naruto had trouble keeping his promise, because just the thought of Sasuke dying made him sick. He couldn’t let him die, not when he was finally safe.

Now, standing in front of a gargoyle with cold toes and Sasuke hiding somewhere in the basement of a giant, magic castle, Naruto feels the same way. But he still hasn’t figured out how to fix Sasuke, how to bring him back from wherever he’s hiding inside of himself. When they were younger, it was easier to coax Sasuke out with a challenge or an insult or any of the stupid things Naruto used to do. Even when Naruto finally found Sasuke after three years of searching, and Sasuke tried to kill him, Naruto had still seen bits and pieces of the Sasuke he knew, could at least get him to react. But the Sasuke who woke up in Konoha’s hospital is so still and silent and strange, like all the angry, real parts of him have finally burned out. 

There was one night, though, after Sasuke left the hospital but before they got their seals. They’d been sharing Naruto’s futon because Naruto was in charge of watching Sasuke and with the Uchiha compound destroyed in Pein’s attack, there really hadn’t been anywhere else for Sasuke to go. And Sasuke had woken up from a nightmare, but instead of locking himself in the bathroom or lying perfectly still and pretending to be asleep like he normally did, he’d turned towards Naruto and breathed in very deeply. 

“I never thought I’d live this long,” he’d said, and Naruto had felt something sharp and painful catch inside his chest. Sasuke’s eyes had been wide and dark, and his hands were trembling, so close to Naruto that he could feel them shake without looking down to see. 

“I’m glad you did,” Naruto had told him, when he’d felt like he could speak again. “I want you here.” He’d grabbed Sasuke’s hands, warmed Sasuke’s fingers up with his own, and Sasuke had let him. 

“I know,” was all that Sasuke had said, and eventually they’d both fallen back asleep. But in the morning, he’d woken up to Sasuke’s head on his chest, his dark, feathery hair tickling Naruto’s nose with every breath. And he’d thought, _Sasuke’s home_ , and it was like it was the first time he’d really believed it. 

The gargoyle moves and people come out, startling Naruto from his thoughts. It’s McGonagall, and two people Naruto is pretty sure he met when they first arrived, although he can’t remember their names. One has dark hair and glasses, and the other is all red and freckly like Gaara. They all stop for a moment, and McGonagall nods her head at him. 

“Hey!” Naruto says, and waves at them. “Good thing you came out, I can never remember the passwords for this place.”

The one with red hair laughs a bit, and Naruto smiles at him. 

“So, so, Headmistress. Um. Is there anywhere in the castle that’s like, below the dungeons, and how do you get under there? Because I need to check it out.”

The two guys exchange glances, and McGonagall frowns at him. “Beneath the dungeons?” She asks.

“Yeah,” Naruto says. “There’s definitely something under there, but I don’t know how to get that far down! It’s not on the map you gave me. It might be like a cave or something.” 

Naruto’s sure the entrance is in the castle somewhere though, because he never felt Sasuke’s chakra leave the castle, and he definitely would’ve noticed. Naruto feels almost hyperaware of Sasuke’s location, now, like Sasuke is always just on the edge of his peripheral vision, darting in and out of range. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on anything else. Kakashi said the feeling should fade as he got used to the seal, but it hasn’t yet. Maybe it’s just Naruto, though, because Naruto has been following Sasuke for years, and even now he sometimes wakes up and thinks, _Today’s the day I find Sasuke_ , like he had every morning for years until the day came when he really did find him. 

The one with glasses coughs. “I think I might know what you’re thinking of,” he says. “I’ll take you there. How did you know there was something beneath the dungeons, if it’s not on your map?” 

“Shinobi intuition,” Naruto tells him, and he taps his temple and winks as they start walking. It’s something he learned from Kakashi. “Shinobi intuition” is a way of saying, “I can’t tell you,” but without actually having to say that. Naruto can’t tell them about the seal, because if he did then he’d have to explain why Sasuke had it, and these people had already acted suspicious of Sasuke before because he could talk to snakes. 

Naruto has to admit that the snake thing is a little suspicious, because Orochimaru, and also because the wizards had their own evil snake guy not too long ago. But still. Sasuke got enough suspicious looks in Konoha, and he doesn’t need them here too. The seal isn’t even a big deal, but they might think it is. Really, it just gives Naruto a really good feel for Sasuke’s chakra, so he can always kind of tell where Sasuke is, and if his chakra is agitated or something. Not to mention the seal goes both ways, and no one made Sasuke take it. The Council had wanted to—had wanted to seal Sasuke all the way up, or something—but Naruto wouldn’t let them, and Kakashi was the Hokage and he said no. 

Kakashi had suggested this seal, though, to ease their minds, and when he’d told Naruto what it did Naruto had wanted it so bad he thought he might make Sasuke take it. But in the end, all Naruto had to do was show Sasuke the seal. 

“This is a two-way seal,” Sasuke had said, his voice completely even. 

“Yeah,” Naruto told him. “I’d get one with your blood and chakra mixed in, and you’d get one with mine. And then we could always find each other.” 

“This seal reveals more than location,” Sasuke droned. “I will also know the state of your chakra.” 

“That too! And I’ll know yours. We’ll be able to read each other’s hearts without even fighting!” That was how Kakashi had explained it, and Naruto wanted it so, so bad. Wanted something physical, something he could see, binding them together. If he never went another second of his life without knowing where Sasuke was or what was happening to him or when he’d see him again, he’d die happy.

Sasuke had been quiet for so long Naruto thought he wasn’t going to answer, and had gone to make dinner instead. But that night, before they went to bed, Sasuke had stopped in the middle of getting dressed and turned to face Naruto. 

“Okay,” he’d said, and then he’d turned right back around. 

“Okay what?” Naruto had yelled, and Sasuke had ignored him until after they brushed their teeth and laid down on the futon, Sasuke facing the window, Naruto facing Sasuke’s back. 

Then he’d spoken, so quietly Naruto almost missed it. “I’ll accept the seal with you,” he’d murmured, and then he wouldn’t speak another word about it. But they’d gotten the seal, and Naruto is still tracing its lines and feeling Sasuke’s chakra pulsing in time with his own, a different rhythm than their heartbeats, slow and steady and powerful. 

The seal is how Naruto knows for sure that Sasuke isn’t lost. Because usually, Sasuke’s chakra is subdued in a way that Sasuke should never be, more like ice than like lightning. But sometimes, Naruto feels a spike of _something_ , some feeling that Naruto can’t put a name to but feels all the same, and Naruto knows. That’s Sasuke. He’s in there, Naruto knows it. He just has to drag him out. 

Their little group comes to a stop, and Naruto realizes that they’re in a bathroom. 

“Why are we in a bathroom?” Naruto asks. “Also, sorry, what are your names? I’m Naruto, in case you forgot!” 

Everyone looks at each other before looking at Naruto, and then glasses-guy speaks. “I’m Harry,” he says, and he point to the guy with red hair. “That’s Ron. We’re the Aurors you met when you first got here. And we’re in the girl’s bathroom because it’s the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.” 

Naruto snorts. _Chamber of Secrets_. Sounds just like the kind of place Sasuke would be. 

Ron leans in towards McGonagall. “Are you sure this bloke is qualified to be a guard?” 

She sniffs. “He comes highly recommended, as does his counterpart. Albus thought this would be a good solution.” 

“Hey! I’m a great guard, don’t worry. I’m the best shinobi in my village! This Albus guy knows what he’s talking about, obviously.” 

Ron looks at McGonagall again, and she closes her eyes and breathes in. “Just show Naruto the entrance, Potter.” 

“Ah, Ron’ll have to do it. I can’t speak Parseltounge anymore, actually.” 

Ron nudges Harry in the ribs. “Good thing I memorized all your hissing, eh?” 

Then he makes some sort of awful garbled noise at the sink, like Sasuke does with his snakes but way louder and more like coughing up a hairball. It apparently does the trick, though, because the sink opens up into a passageway that wasn’t there before. 

“Whoa! That’s awesome.” Naruto jumps right in, the other three following behind him. He can feel Sasuke’s chakra more clearly, now, like a whole layer of magic has been stripped away. Magic is crazy. Also super weird. Naruto still isn’t over the talking pictures, or the ghosts. 

Naruto shudders. Ghosts. 

They find Sasuke sitting cross-legged in huge, dripping cavern, staring at the skeleton of an enormous snake, even bigger than the one that ate Naruto during the chuunin exams. It’s probably the most hilariously Sasuke thing Naruto has seen in a long time, even if it is kind of creepy: Sasuke just sitting there with his sword in his lap, staring into the eyes of a giant snake skull with one of his summons wrapped around his neck. 

“Holy shit,” Naruto says. “That was a giant snake. Did you guys know I got eaten by a snake once? I totally killed it, though, and then I saved Sasuke while I was still covered in snake guts and everything.”

Naruto isn’t supposed to be telling these people anything about the shinobi world, but he figures that story is safe enough as long as he doesn’t mention Orochimaru. Giant snakes could be anywhere, could have eaten Naruto for any reason. It’s whatever. 

“You got eaten by a snake?” Ron asks, but before Naruto can answer, Sasuke’s summon starts hissing at them. Naruto doesn’t know this one’s name, but it’s pretty small for a summon, probably about as long as one of Naruto’s legs. It’s beautiful, though, with iridescent scales that look black at first glance, but reflect a thousand different shades of blue and purple and green under the light. It makes Naruto think of the hummingbirds that dart around in the flowers just outside Konoha’s walls. 

“Wish you knew what he was saying, mate,” Ron mutters, and Naruto glances behind him to see Harry frown and nod. 

“Well!” Naruto exclaims. “Thanks for showing me how to get into this place. I’ll check it out, see if it should be added to the patrols. I’m sure Sasuke can show me the way out!” 

“Is that your familiar?” Harry asks, and Naruto is confused for a moment before he realizes that Harry is talking to Sasuke, not him, and that he’s pointing at Sasuke’s snake. 

“Uh, maybe,” Naruto says. “What’s a familiar? It’s kind of rude to ask people about their summons, though,” he explains. “Just so you know.” 

Naruto doesn’t really get that, because he doesn’t mind if people ask him about his toads, but Kakashi explained to him that summons are private, because your contract with them is something personal. So it’s rude to talk about them unless the other person brings them up first. 

“Summons?” McGonagall asks. 

“Yeah, summons. You know, animal spirits that you contract with. Sasuke has snakes, and hawks I think, and I have toads! I’ll have to introduce you to Gamakichi sometime, he’ll think this place is crazy. Not right now, though. He doesn’t like snakes very much.” 

Naruto decides to get this show on the road before they start bothering Sasuke. Naruto still isn’t one hundred percent positive that Sasuke should be anywhere near civilians, but he’s been doing all right so far, even though they’ve been kind of annoying. Still, he doesn’t want to test his luck. 

“Hey, hey, Sasuke, let’s go upstairs, okay? Let’s get some sleep, I’m tired.” 

The snake on Sasuke’s shoulders hisses something before slipping down inside of Sasuke’s shirt so that it can’t be seen, and Sasuke’s head turns to the side so he can stare at Naruto. He stays like that for a moment, unblinking, and Naruto squirms around a little bit but doesn’t break eye contact. Sasuke can be such a creepy bastard. 

Sasuke moves, standing up and slipping his sword behind his back in one sinuous motion. He doesn’t wear the rope or the skirt anymore, which Naruto not-so-privately thinks is a huge fashion improvement, so he has a sheath for his sword that straps across his back. Other than that, his clothes are basically the same as they’d been before; big grey, white, or black shirts with the wide collar and his clan symbol on the back, and black leggings with pockets. He has a standard-issue jounin uniform that Kakashi gave him for meeting their clients, but he wouldn’t wear it. Naruto didn’t wear his either so he can’t judge. 

He doesn’t have a forehead protector. Naruto still has it, scratch and everything. He just hasn’t figured out how to give it back yet. 

Sasuke stares at Naruto for a moment, completely expressionless, and Naruto stares back, strangely distracted by the sharp cut of Sasuke’s cheekbones, the almost ethereal look he has in the dim light. For a long time, Naruto felt like he knew everything about Sasuke, thought he had every line of his face memorized, all of his stupid expressions and strange little tells that no one else seems to notice. But every time Naruto looks at him now, he feels like there’s something he’s never really noticed before: the sharp little point of Sasuke’s nose, the way his lips are such a pale shade of pink they almost blend into his skin. Naruto sometimes feels like he could stare at Sasuke for the rest of his life, maybe because it feels like such a miracle to actually have Sasuke where Naruto can see him, and he’s allowed to look, doesn’t have to fight. 

He still kind of wants to punch Sasuke’s face every time he sees it, though, so there’s that, too. 

Sasuke flickers past them, not even looking at the others, and Naruto feels the tiny burst of chakra as he uses it. 

“Next time I’ll leave one of my snakes with you,” he says. “So you can get in.” 

Naruto hurries to follow, the other three trailing behind. 

“Creepy bloke, isn’t he,” he hears Ron whispering, and he catches Harry’s suspicious glance at Sasuke. 

“Yeah,” Harry agrees, but he doesn’t say anything else. 

Naruto thinks about Sasuke standing blank-faced in the open mouth of a snake’s skull, half-hidden by the shadows, and he can’t help but agree. It’s not that Naruto doesn’t get why people are afraid of Sasuke, especially civilians, who probably should be afraid, because Sasuke might actually kill them and not even realize it. But Sasuke is more than that, isn’t just some heartless killer like people make him out to be. He’s not even that crazy, considering. And when Naruto looks at Sasuke, he sees the same thing he sees when he looks at Konoha, sees something torn apart by lies and betrayal and distrust, but also something that can be great, that can be better. 

Sasuke is already a great ninja, as good as Naruto, maybe even better. He saved Konoha and the world and ended a war that could have destroyed everything. He made the choice not to destroy Konoha on his own, even if Naruto helped a little, and in the Valley of the End, he didn’t kill Naruto when he had the chance, even when Naruto was the only thing standing between him and the Mangekyou. 

So even if he’s not—whole. Naruto can help him fill in the gaps. Can help him find peace, just like he’s going to help Konoha find peace. And then when he’s finished training and becomes Hokage, Sasuke can help him fix Konoha, so nothing like what happened to his family can ever happen again. Naruto will keep all of his promises, and he’ll do it with Sasuke by his side. That’s Naruto’s dream.

Naruto wants to say all this to Sasuke, but he can’t with their clients around, so instead he fumbles with Kakashi’s letter in his pocket again. He can tell Kakashi that Sasuke has been getting along with the clients and the civilians, which is mostly true. There hasn’t been very much in the way of killing intent, at least, which is definitely a success in Naruto’s book. And he can tell Kakashi about Sasuke hanging out with his snakes, which totally counts as interaction.

Although probably he shouldn’t tell Kakashi that Sasuke was hanging out underground with a giant skeleton, heh. 

Feeling better, Naruto bounces past Sasuke and into the bathroom, then helps their clients out of the passageway while Sasuke holds a low, sibilant conversation with his snake.

“Thanks again for showing me the secret entrance!” Naruto tells Harry and Ron. “I probably never would’ve found it on my own, since I haven’t been into any of the girl’s bathrooms.”

He turns to McGonagall. “And thanks to you too, Headmistress! Let me know if there’s anything else you want us to check out, because it’s all been super quiet on our end. I’m ready for the kids to get here!” 

Harry makes a weird noise at that, and Naruto turns to him. “What!”

“Nothing. It’s just—I mean, how old are you, anyway?”

“Seventeen! I’ll be eighteen soon, though, just a couple months. Sasuke already turned eighteen in July, that bastard." 

Everyone turns to look at Sasuke, who ignores them.

“No way are you two the same age,” Ron says. 

“Believe it!” Naruto fist pumps a little bit, he can’t help himself. 

“Children,” McGonagall says, quiet and disapproving. 

Naruto snorts. Civilians. He looks over to Sasuke, who keeps his face blank but twitches a little bit in a way that would be an eye-roll if he was anyone else. “We are definitely not kids, lady. Sasuke and I have been in the field for six years now.” 

Sasuke lets out a long breath. “Shinobi are weapons,” he tells them, monotone. “Do not worry about our abilities. Any threats will be dealt with as agreed in our contract." 

Naruto doesn’t agree with Sasuke about ninja being weapons, but he’s not completely wrong. What Naruto wants is for people to understand that shinobi are more than just tools or just weapons. It’s something Naruto has always known, always believed, and when he’s Hokage he’s going to make sure everyone else does, too. 

Naruto thinks about his own childhood, the civilians who wouldn’t serve him food or sell him clothes, thinks about having to climb up onto the counter to reach the sink, thinks about long nights in his apartment with only his plants for company. He thinks about tiny, seven year old Sasuke, recovering from genjutsu trauma alone in the house where his family was murdered.

No, neither of them are children anymore, especially not Sasuke, who hasn’t really been a child for a very long time, much longer than Naruto.

“Come on, Sasuke,” Naruto says. “I’m sleepy. Goodnight, you guys! See you around!”

He waves goodbye to the clients, and Sasuke follows him out.

“Weird,” he can hear Ron saying. 

“Yeah, we’ll have to check them out again.” This time it’s Harry speaking. “I don’t know, but the dark-haired one, Sasuke? I’ve got a bad feeling about him.” 

“Well, boys…” 

Naruto gestures for Sasuke to hurry up, and tunes the old lady out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for clarity's sake, I would like to note that this pretty much assumes canon until the very end of Sasuke's and Naruto's last fight, right before they blew each other's arms off. Details are forthcoming. Also, timeline-wise, this story takes place in the school year immediately following the Second Wizarding War, in what would've been Harry's eighth year if this was an eighth year fic. Which it's not. The HP universe is as canon as I can make it, but obviously the details will have to be filled in via guesswork/authorial interpretation.
> 
> Please please let me know what you thought, and if you're interested in seeing more! Try not to judge me for my unoriginal title choices, but comments/concerns/suggestions of all types are appreciated. Thanks so much for reading!


	2. The Forbidden Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto discovers magic food, tables, and ceilings, all while obsessing over Sasuke. Sasuke threatens the centaurs, and also Hagrid.

Sasuke adjusts his footing, maintaining his balance with chakra as he perches on the slanted roof. The castle is situated on a cliff, and from Sasuke’s position on its tallest tower, he can see for miles. His Sharingan swirls lazily as he takes everything in: the enormous tentacles stirring the otherwise calm surface of the lake; the strange, skeletal horses grazing at the edge of the forest; the owls swooping into the castle despite the daylight hour. He can feel Naruto’s chakra thrumming in the background, somewhere on the other side of the castle. It’s almost tempting to reach out to where Naruto is, to spike his chakra and feel Naruto come running, but there’s no need.

He bites his thumb and summons Garuda, who arrives promptly as always. He looks around, clearly interested, and Sasuke wonders if, like his snakes, Garuda has never been in this world. Gently, he pets Garuda’s beak, careful of the sensitive, delicate feathers where beak joins with body. The beak is cold and smooth under Sasuke’s fingers, and he rests his head against it for a moment before Garuda turns to allow Sasuke onto his back.

Sasuke climbs on. “I need to survey the territory, first the grounds that way,” he gestures to the right, “and then the forest. It’s inhabited, possibly by hostile forces, so don’t fly too low.”

They take off, and Sasuke carefully records the landscape, forming a mental map that his Sharingan will permanently commit to memory.

“ _What realm is this, Sasuke? The chakra here is foreign to me_.”

Garuda rarely speaks, and has spoken to Sasuke only once. When his voice booms in Sasuke’s mind, it takes Sasuke a moment to recognize it.

“It’s not the same as ours,” Sasuke explains. “The chakra here feels strange because it’s…sentient. They call it magic.”

Magic is a strange concept, one that Sasuke does not yet fully understand. Magic tends to act on its own accord, to bloom on contact in a way that chakra does not. Where chakra is first raw energy, and then molded or directed, magic seems to search for purpose, and to take shape on its own. It cries out for a user, incomplete, somehow, in a way that chakra never is.

Sasuke doesn’t know how to voice these thoughts, but Garuda seems to hear them all the same, because he nods before returning his attention to the land below them. It’s nice to fly again; Sasuke hasn’t seen Garuda since the war.

When Sasuke had woken up in Konoha’s hospital after everything, after he’d fought with Naruto that last time, the first thing he’d thought was, _I’m alive?_ The second thing he’d thought was that maybe they’d wanted him to be awake for his execution.

The third thing he’d thought was, _What the fuck is Naruto doing here_ , and, _Of course Naruto would fucking be here_ , because Naruto had been in his hospital bed with him. Asleep. And then Kakashi had come in wearing the Hokage’s robes, and he’d told Naruto to wake up, and then he’d told Sasuke that he’d been pardoned and that was when Sasuke had understood that he wasn’t going to die, after all.

Sasuke still isn’t sure how he feels about that, isn’t sure how he feels about anything, really. The last great feeling to take over Sasuke’s heart happened on the battlefield, with Naruto. All their enemies were defeated; the only fight they had left was between each other. They’d fought for a long time, long enough that Sasuke felt like it had gone on for months, for years. In the end, they’d been laying on the ground next to each other, panting, everything hazy, Sasuke too exhausted to even take stock of his injuries. Chakra had welled up in both of them, finally, from some unknown reserve—they’d been reduced to taijutsu long before that moment—but before Sasuke could convince himself to deliver the final blow, the Kyuubi had reared its head. The last thing Sasuke remembers before waking up in the hospital is seeing Naruto’s face, however blearily, and the unanticipated, overwhelming feeling of relief that had come in knowing that Naruto would live on after Sasuke had died.

That wasn’t the end, though, and Sasuke is back to feeling tired, even more tired than he had been before. Sometimes, when Sasuke has been alone and quiet and unbothered for long enough, he can admit to himself that it might’ve been better, if those had been his last moments: looking at Naruto’s face, and knowing that it was finally, finally over.

Garuda makes a cooing noise at him, sounding distressed, and Sasuke scratches at his neck feathers. Not sure what has Garuda upset, he looks around for the source, and his eyes catch on a herd of horses with human bodies attached. _Centaurs_ , his mind supplies, recalling one of the books McGonagall had given Naruto, and that only Sasuke had read. They’re shooting arrows, and although none of the arrows come anywhere near high enough to make contact, Sasuke chides himself for being distracted enough not to notice an attack.

He’s interested in meeting the centaurs, though, because he has plans to train in this forest, and it will be much easier if he doesn’t need to fight off hostiles he’s not supposed to kill. Mentally reviewing the images he’s gotten, Sasuke realizes that they’ve surveyed almost everything. He can map out the rest another day, he decides.

Unlike in his own world, summons seem to rely on Sasuke to disappear from this realm. Knowing that, he’s hesitant to leave Garuda on his own, so he tells Garuda he’ll make his own way back, asks him to drop him off in the trees, and thanks him for his service.

Garuda swoops down low, and Sasuke releases the summoning jutsu holding him to this realm as he catches himself on a branch. He jumps down, easing the landing with a layer of chakra.

One of the centaurs approaches him. Sasuke stares, sizing the group up. Most of them are armed with bows, a few with knives hanging loosely from their packs. Sasuke suspects that as a whole, they’re hunters rather than warriors; there are scars here and there, but they don’t carry themselves like men who fight for a living. This doesn’t correspond with the brief description he found in the book on “magical creatures,” although the book itself had been so blatantly and heavily biased that Sasuke had dismissed much of it out of hand. Typical of civilians, to assume that any creature not like themselves is incapable of having its own reasons.

The centaur who stepped forward tilts his head at Sasuke. He’s very pale, much paler than the others. “You are not from this realm.”

“No,” Sasuke confirms.

“He’s still a human.” It’s a different centaur, this time, one of the ones with a knife.

Sasuke doesn’t have anything to say to that.

Another centaur steps forward, this one with an arrow already notched in his bow. “We do not suffer humans in this forest,” he intones.

The one who spoke first raises a hand. “He’s barely more than a foal,” he says.

The other one snorts. “Very well,” he allows. “Return to your castle, human,” he says, and this time he’s talking to Sasuke. “Next time we will not be so forgiving.”

Sasuke dismisses all of this. “It’s not my castle,” he tells them, “and I’m not one of those stick-waving civilians. If you start a fight with me, I will win.”

An increasingly familiar tug on his mind interrupts him, and Sasuke is suddenly very aware of Naruto’s chakra, which is growing agitated. He’s probably looking for Sasuke, and Sasuke vaguely remembers Naruto chattering to him about some sort of feast when they’d gotten ready for bed the night before. That’s probably today, then. Usually Naruto doesn’t start hunting for Sasuke until much later.

He returns his attention to the centaurs, who have not attacked, even though they’ve had plenty of opportunity while Sasuke was busy staring at the seal on his arm. Another strike against the book, which described them as “bloodthirsty.”

“You are bonded,” the pale centaur says, sounding surprised.

Sasuke nods. He decides to speed things up, because if Naruto comes barging into the forest after him it’ll probably ruin what little understanding he has with these people. He has no quarrel with them, but he needs to be able to train in this forest, so he tells them as much.

“And don’t shoot at Garuda again,” he says. “My hawk.”

The pale one starts to respond, but before he can Sasuke feels Naruto enter the forest. He sighs.

“I have to go,” he explains, motioning at the seal without really meaning to.

“Perhaps we will meet again,” the centaur says, and bows politely.

Sasuke bows back, ignoring the bickering that starts up among the centaurs immediately after, and then heads purposefully towards Naruto’s chakra. The trees of this forest are much smaller than those surrounding Konoha, and the forest itself feels very strange, suffused with magic in a way that makes it seem keenly aware of Sasuke’s presence. The locals call it “The Forbidden Forest.” Sasuke isn’t certain the magic is dark enough for that; it feels wild rather than sinister, although he can see how such a place would be hazardous for civilians.

He finds Naruto not far from the edge of the forest, apparently entranced by a white horse with a horn on its head. _Unicorn_ , he thinks, and he wonders how long it will take him to get used to the strange creatures of this world, so different from his own. Supposedly, unicorns prefer to be around women, especially virgins, which Sasuke finds suspicious.

Naruto is sitting very still, unusual for him, and Sasuke comes to sit silently beside him. The unicorn doesn’t notice Sasuke for several long moments, but it darts off as soon as it does, moving fast enough that Sasuke activates the Sharingan out of habit.

“You scared it off!” Naruto accuses, and Sasuke nods. He’s not wrong.

Naruto scowls, putting his hands on his hips. “And what were you up to all day, huh? I felt you flying around, it was weird. Anyway, we gotta go! There’s a feast, you promised you’d come, come on, come on,” and he grabs Sasuke’s wrist, attempting to drag him towards the castle.

Sasuke dislodges Naruto from his arm. He promised no such thing, of course, but it doesn’t matter. Sasuke has already allowed Naruto to drag him into another realm entirely, has allowed Naruto to bring him back to the very village Sasuke swore to destroy. He follows Naruto out of the forest, tuning out Naruto’s happy chatter about his day, and tries to ignore the heavy, rhythmic pulse of Naruto’s chakra, which some days seems as if it would consume Sasuke, if he let it.

In that last battle, when he’d attacked Naruto, he’d thought, half delirious with pain and anger, that if Naruto died—if he killed Naruto—he’d just keep going, killing and burning until nothing was left, until Sasuke was the very last human standing, until he could stretch his chakra across the whole continent and find only barrenness. Only then, he’d thought. Only then would he rest.

Sasuke didn’t kill Naruto, and he can’t rest. He thinks sometimes that the only reason he keeps moving is Naruto, Naruto who is endlessly dragging Sasuke behind him, pulling him towards some goal that Sasuke cannot see.

Inexplicably, Sasuke thinks of one of the very first men he’d killed under Orochimaru’s tutelage. Orochimaru had directed Sasuke to slice into the man’s stomach, like gutting a pig, and then to leave him to bleed out on the streets. Sasuke had done so, even though his hands were shaking and his own stomach roiled in misbegotten sympathy.

Orochimaru had noticed.

“Never show weakness,” he’d lectured, in the firm voice he saved for instruction. “Weakness is an opening for your enemy.”

 _Don’t be weak_ , Sasuke had repeated to himself, like a mantra. _Don’t be weak_. But that night, Sasuke had lain in bed and thought of his lessons from the academy, of Iruka explaining to the class that stomach wounds could take hours to kill a man, every moment painful and miserable. It was a cruel way to kill, he’d explained, because it took so long; more than that, it was dangerous, because the enemy might live long enough to be healed, and to come after you another day.

Stomach wounds are one of the most painful ways to die, outside of torture. Orochimaru had Sasuke slice that man open to prove a point, and after that he’d pushed and pushed until Sasuke understood how to keep his weakness hidden, how to look at suffering and see nothing. Now, though, Sasuke thinks about the man’s insides spilling out onto the ground at his feet, the way his hands had clenched and grabbed at nothing, as if he could hold himself together if only he could reach.

Sasuke feels like that, sometimes. Like a stomach wound that never ends.

He realizes, then, that they’re not moving, and that Naruto has a hand on Sasuke’s arm.

Sasuke shrugs the hand off and looks pointedly at Naruto. “What,” he asks, flatly.

“You stopped,” Naruto explains. “Are you okay?”

Naruto’s eyes are wide and endless, colored a blue that’s just a shade too bright to look natural. His eyebrows are furrowed, his lips twisted in concern, and Sasuke registers the look and the accompanying twinge to Naruto’s chakra with the same steady indifference he feels towards most things these days.

“I’m fine, dead last. Just tired.”

Naruto frowns at him. “Well if you’re so tired you shouldn’t be out here by yourself! You’d sleep better if you’d quit hiding in the bathroom at night, stupid. You need to sleep more.”

Sasuke doesn’t respond, and Naruto huffs. “Come on, bastard, let’s go. I wanna eat, so we need to hurry! We’ve gotta go back to our room and get ready and stuff.”

They make it back in plenty of time, and while Naruto bustles around the room, moving things around and debating about which weapons to take to dinner, Sasuke sits at the window and watches the lake below. It’s a giant squid, Sasuke thinks, or maybe an octopus, although he can’t be sure; he’s only traveled to the ocean once, and he didn’t see one while he was there. He recognizes the tentacles, though, from the scrolls Orochimaru had shown him before the trip.

Before they leave the room, Sasuke summons one of his snakes, because they’ve been restless since he got here, and if he goes more than a day or so without summoning one they start to tug at his chakra. It’s the magic here, Sasuke thinks; even he can tell that this castle was built on the blood and bones of ancient, powerful serpents. The very walls seem to whisper in the language of snakes—Sasuke has yet to decide whether the whispers are warnings, or invitations.

Either way, the snakes want to come, so Sasuke summons them. It’s no loss to Sasuke. Most days, Sasuke understands snakes better than he understands humans.

* * *

  
The Great Hall, Naruto decides, is awesome. There’s some sort of genjutsu going on that makes the ceiling look like the night sky, with a thousand lit candles somehow floating above their heads. Sasuke, as usual, seems unimpressed, but Naruto caught him looking at it when they came in together.

“Thank you for arriving at the appointed time,” McGonagall tells Naruto. “I’d like the two of you to eat with the faculty tonight, so I can introduce you to the students.”

“Okay, yeah, can do! Where do you want us to sit?”

McGonagall points to the long table on a platform on the other side of the room. “There are empty seats at the High Table,” she explains. “Announcements will take place after the Start-of-Term Feast. Now, do take your places. The students will be arriving shortly.”

Naruto drags Sasuke to the empty seats on one end of the table and sits beside some old lady with dirt in her hair. The chair next to Sasuke’s is empty, which Naruto thinks is probably for the best, although maybe someone will end up sitting in it. He kind of hopes not; Sasuke acted kind of strange in the forest, and again in their room. He seems like he’s doing better now, at least.

“Well, hello there,” the old lady says, before Naruto really gets a chance to think about it. “Are you two both new professors this year? I’m afraid I haven’t had a chance to meet everyone yet. I’m Ponoma Sprout, by the way. Herbology professor.”

Sasuke makes a weird noise when she asks if he’s a professor, and Naruto laughs, imagining Sasuke trying to teach anything.

“No, we’re definitely not professors, ha. The name’s Naruto! And this is Sasuke. We’re shinobi, here to guard the school!”

The old guy sitting on the other side of Professor Sprout leans forward before she can respond.

“Shinobi?” he asks.

“Yeah! You know, ninja. Don’t worry, your school will be super safe with me and Sasuke here! I’m Naruto, by the way.”

The man makes a weird face, like he’s looking at something that’s both fascinating and kind of gross. “Horace Slughorn, my boy. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Nice to meet you too. What do you teach?”

“Oh, Potions, of course. I’m the Potions Master here, and the Head of Slytherin, as you may know.”

Naruto doesn’t know, but that’s fine. And Potions, ha. Everything at this school sounds made up. When Kakashi told Naruto he was going to take Sasuke and guard a magic school outside of the Hidden Continent entirely, Naruto laughed for like a year. Then he found out that Kakashi wasn’t joking, and Naruto has to admit, he thought Kakashi might’ve been under a genjutsu or something. But he wasn’t, and apparently magic is real, and civilian kids come to a school with snake skeletons in the basement to learn Potions, of all things.

Professor Slughorn turns his eyes on Sasuke. “And you, young man? You’re also a, ah,” he coughs politely, “a ninja?”

Sasuke, interrupted from staring into space thinking about god-knows-what, turns his head very slowly to face Slughorn. The rest of his body remains perfectly still.

“Yes,” he says, and stares for a moment before turning away.

Naruto pats him pleasantly on the shoulder, noticing as he does so that there is definitely a snake curled around Sasuke’s arm. Sasuke jerks his shoulder away.

He’s about to comment on Sasuke’s newfound penchant for pets, because seriously, who lets their summons live inside their shirts all day, when the largest man Naruto has ever seen in his life walks into the Great Hall. He’s huge. He’s like, a million feet tall, and he’s not skinny, either. The guy is even bigger than Killer B or the Raikage, and he has way more hair.

“Holy shit,” Naruto says. “That guy is huge!”

Sasuke gives him a look.

“Well, he is.” Naruto sticks out his tongue at him.

As the giant gets closer to the table, Naruto notices that the floor is literally shaking with his steps. It’s crazy. It’s like if Chouji was all blown-up from his jutsu, but just in regular life. Naruto wonders, vaguely, if they might be related, but before he can really expand on that train of thought the guy sits down at the table. Right beside Sasuke.

The professors lean forward a bit to greet him, and Naruto waits his turn a bit impatiently. When everyone settles down a bit, Naruto interrupts a conversation about vampires—vampires, what—to introduce himself.

“I’m Naruto!” he exclaims, and points to himself. “And this is Sasuke.” He points to Sasuke. “We’re guards!”

The giant laughs and pounds one hand on the table. “Nice ta meet yeh, Naruto and Sasuke!” He butchers their names ridiculously, but Naruto is too distracted by the man’s massive hand to comment. “Guess I should introduce meself. I’m Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Also the professor fer Care of Magical Creatures. But yeh can call me Hagrid, everyone does.”

Hagrid pulls a flask out of his coat pocket and takes a swig. “Headmistress told me there’d be guards, but I’d of thought it’d be Aurors or summat.”

Naruto shakes his head. “Nah. We’re not Aurors, we’re shinobi. Ninja, you know.”

Aurors were explained to Naruto as a kind of police force, and it seems like they’re actually civilians, not part of a military. In fact, from what Kakashi and McGonagall have told him, Naruto is pretty sure that these people don’t even have an armed forces; there’s no ninja-village equivalent in the magic world, and Naruto has been informed that none of the magic schools teach taijutsu or weapon handling at all. Their Wizarding Wars, as far as Naruto can tell, were actually just a bunch of civilians murdering each other for shits and giggles. And not doing a very good job of it, either. Privately, Naruto thinks it’s for the best that they outsourced for protection.

“Well,” Hagrid says. “Sounds like yeh know what yer doing, at least.”

Naruto decides that he likes this guy. He decides too soon, though, because right as he thinks that, Hagrid turns his attention to Sasuke.

“What about you,” he booms. “Yer a quiet one, are yeh?”

Trace amounts of killing intent start leaking into the room, and the civilians all go quiet, except for Hagrid, who doesn’t seem to notice. Hagrid offers his flask to Sasuke, indicating Sasuke’s empty goblet.

“You look like yeh need a drink,” he says.

Sasuke nods sharply, and Hagrid pours some in the goblet.

“Hey!” Naruto interrupts. “Don’t give him that. Sasuke, you don’t need that.”

Sasuke cuts his eyes at Naruto, and the killing intent in the room goes up a notch. The lady next to Naruto shudders noticeably.

Hagrid laughs. “Er, yer old enough ta have some, right?”

Sasuke nods curtly and downs the liquid in the goblet like he’s taking a shot. Naruto groans. He can’t imagine any situation in which a drunk Sasuke is a good idea.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Sasuke grits out.

“That’s the spirit,” Hagrid booms, and goes to clap Sasuke on the back. Before Naruto even has time to panic, Sasuke’s hand shoots out and catches Hagrid’s. The snake in his shirt shoots out, hissing, and suddenly it’s ten feet long and way too big to have been in Sasuke’s shirt in the first place.

Hagrid reaches his other hand out to it. “Hullo there, little fella!”

The snake hisses viciously and jerks its head like it’s going to bite. Hagrid laughs again and looks at Sasuke.

“He’s beautiful,” he tells him. “What’s ‘is name? Or’s he a she?”

Sasuke finally lets go of Hagrid’s hand, and the killing intent dies down. “His name is Yoyu,” he says, brusquely, and he hisses something. Yoyu backs down, curling around Sasuke, although he doesn’t shrink back to his previous size. The rest of the snake spills onto the floor and around the chair.

As the killing intent disappears, conversation picks back up. Naruto watches warily as Hagrid chatters at Sasuke about his own animals, but Sasuke seems like he’s okay, even if he’s not really responding in actual words. Sasuke isn’t attacking him or disappearing, and his chakra doesn’t feel particularly agitated, so Naruto thinks he might actually like the guy. It’s strange to see Sasuke tolerate someone other than Naruto or sometimes Kakashi. Back in Konoha, Sasuke wouldn’t even look at Sakura, even though she was the one who healed him after everything, and he completely avoided everyone else. Kakashi and the old hag and Naruto had a long conversation about it, before they got sent to Hogwarts. Tsunade kept bringing up stuff like “trauma” and “integration.” Kakashi had translated by saying that Sasuke couldn’t get better if he wouldn't talk to anyone, but Sasuke has always been like that, as long as Naruto has known him. Naruto doesn’t know if that’s the kind of thing that can change.

Naruto thinks about Sasuke’s other team, Team Taka or Hebi or whatever. Sasuke acted pretty indifferently towards them, and they’d stayed with Orochimaru, afterwards, but Juugo had come to visit so Naruto had met him a few times. Juugo was a big guy, too, although not as big as Hagrid by a long shot. Sasuke said he didn’t care about him, but he let Juugo follow him around and stuff, so he must’ve liked the guy at least some. He wonders if Sasuke keeps up with Juugo, and with his other old teammates, like he does with Orochimaru. He hopes so. At least, he thinks he does.

Naruto doesn’t understand the thing with Orochimaru, or why Sasuke would want to talk to him at all, but Sasuke refuses to explain. He asked Shikamaru what he thought, once, but Shikamaru hadn’t been very helpful, and had apparently gone to Kakashi because a few days later Sasuke came home from lunch with Kakashi and was mad at Naruto. And ever since then Sasuke has refused to tell Naruto who his letters are from.

Yoyu turns to eye Naruto beadily, hissing at him softly, probably because he’s been staring too long. Naruto gives him a weak smile. He wonders if Sasuke’s summons can all speak human languages, and just choose not to, or if it’s only the giant ones who know how. Some of Naruto’s smaller toads can’t really talk to humans yet, so that would make sense. But Naruto would like to be able to talk to Sasuke’s snakes, if they’re going to be around.

Naruto looks away just in time to see the students start filing into the Great Hall. They’re all wearing black robes and pointy hats, which is apparently a thing here. Naruto rolls his eyes. He thought that Sasuke had questionable style, but he’s realizing that apparently yes, it really can be worse than oversized purple bows and man-skirts over pants. Most of them at least glance up at the High Table, and Naruto waggles his fingers at anyone who looks at him.

There’s some sort of ceremony with a talking hat, which Naruto decides not to question too much, because what. Then it’s time to eat, finally, which Naruto sets to with great gusto. Food happens by magic at Hogwarts, which is pretty much the best thing about living in a magic castle. Usually, they eat in their room, and supposedly the house elves bring them food and pick up their dishes, but Naruto never sees them. For the feast, though, Naruto gets to watch the food pile up by magic in the middle of the table, and every time something is finished, it disappears only to be replaced by a fresh dish. It’s probably the most amazing thing Naruto’s ever seen, and if any of the food was ramen, it definitely would be.

After the food, McGonagall stands up and says a bunch of stuff that Naruto doesn’t listen to, until he hears his name and realizes he should probably stand up and introduce himself properly. Naruto has eaten so much he’s a little dubious about his ability to get out of his chair, but he makes it, and Sasuke stands up, too. He stares imposingly at the students while Naruto beams and waves at everyone.

“I’m Naruto,” he announces, “and this is Sasuke! We’re shinobi, and we’re here to protect your school, so if you think something’s up, we’re the people to come to! Well, I’m the person to come to. Probably you shouldn’t bother Sasuke, but don’t worry, he’ll protect you too! Either way, your school is definitely safe with us. Believe it!”

Speech over, Naruto sits back down, and some of the students clap. McGonagall talks a little more, and then everyone is dismissed and the kids all leave, milling around every which way like a herd of cats. Sasuke lets Naruto guide him to their room, and Yoyu slinks around the floor of the bathroom while they brush their teeth and stuff.

“Hey, hey, Sasuke,” Naruto asks. “I meant to ask earlier, but then I got distracted, and I keep forgetting. Are snakes like, your thing now? Like why are they hanging out in your shirt and stuff.” Naruto waves his toothbrush around a little and gets toothpaste on the mirror. Oops. “That’s pretty weird, you know. I mean you’re a creepy bastard and everything but still. Also can they talk to humans?”

Sasuke wipes off his cheek, because apparently he got toothpaste on Sasuke, too. Naruto waits for him to get mad about it, but he doesn’t.

“They like the castle,” Sasuke explains, eventually. “And most of them can speak in human tongues. Not all.”

“Okay,” Naruto says.

Sasuke turns back towards the mirror, putting the hand towel back where it belongs, and Naruto stares at his reflection. Sasuke’s face is so blank, kind of like Sai’s used to be, but not quite the same—heavier, maybe. There are bags underneath his eyes, evident against his pale skin, and Naruto wasn’t kidding earlier when he said that Sasuke needed to sleep.

They turn off all the lights and get into bed, and Naruto sidles up to Sasuke, a little closer than they usually sleep. Sasuke is laying on his back, eyes closed and breathing even, but Naruto knows it takes Sasuke a long, long time to fall asleep, longer than Naruto can stay awake, most nights.

Naruto looks at Sasuke’s wrist, so pale and thin against the dark sheets of the bed. It makes Sasuke look frail, delicate and breakable and doll-like, when Naruto knows that he’s not. Sasuke is strong, has proven it a thousand times, kept going and going and going for so long after anyone else would have given up, anyone else except Naruto. And now it’s over, but Sasuke still isn’t happy, and Naruto doesn’t know how to help, doesn’t know how to make things right for him. He traces the seal on his arm, but Sasuke’s chakra feels the same as always: frozen.

“What happened earlier, in the forest?” Naruto asks. It’s a whisper, but his voice still sounds loud in the quiet of the room.

Sasuke opens his eyes, but he doesn’t look at Naruto.

“Nothing happened,” he says.

“No,” and Naruto tries to keep his hands to himself, but he can’t, can’t stop his fingers from circling gently around Sasuke’s wrist. “You stopped, just out of nowhere.”

“I told you,” Sasuke says, and closes his eyes. He doesn’t pull his arm away. “I was tired.”

Naruto sighs, but doesn’t push. He changes the subject. “You seemed like you liked Hagrid.”

Sasuke grunts.

The room is quiet, and Naruto lets himself be lulled by the soft rhythm of Sasuke’s breathing and the knowledge that Sasuke is there, close enough to touch. He drifts for a while, caught in that half-way space between asleep and awake.

It's very late when, as if in a dream, Naruto feels Sasuke’s hand grip his once, very tightly, before it lets go entirely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I feel like I should say that this is a fairly, um, loose interpretation of canon. I always thought Sasuke’s time with Orochimaru had to have been fucked up, and in this story it definitely was. Also, it's been a while since I've read/watched Naruto (for the most part), so my memory on some things is a little vague. But I do mean for things to be mostly canon, or to make sense with canon, at least. Excluding the ending. But if you're very strict on canon, this is probably not the story for you--although, of course, HP crossovers aren't really the place to look for strictly canon Naruto stories in the first place, haha. Also, side note: I actually really like Sasuke's outfit in canon, rope/skirt deal and everything. I just didn't think Naruto would like it so it's something easy for him to complain about. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading, and let me know what you thought! Questions, comments, and concerns of all sorts will be read and appreciated.


	3. The Minister for Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto gives himself a rousing motivational speech (about Sasuke), gets hypothetical advice (about Sasuke), and doesn't eat any ramen at all. Sasuke is distinctly terrible at diplomacy.

Naruto makes his way up the long, curving staircase to McGonagall’s office, having managed to remember the password for once. Sasuke isn’t with him, but Naruto can feel his chakra hovering close by, so he’s pretty sure Sasuke will show up for the meeting McGonagall requested. Hopefully she’s not mad about Sasuke destroying part of the forest that morning during training. If she is, Naruto doesn’t know how he’s going to explain to her that it’s probably the best option, because it was either the forest or the castle. 

The door at the top of the stairs is closed, so Naruto lets himself in, noticing as he does so that Ron and Harry are in the office, standing beside a giant bowl and talking to some bald guy with a cool hat that Naruto doesn’t recognize. McGonagall is nowhere to be seen. 

“Hey guys!” Naruto calls out. “Ron, Harry, I didn’t know you were gonna be here! Awesome. Who’s the bald guy? And where’s McGonagall? Is she mad about the forest? Because I probably can’t do anything about that.” 

Ron laughs. “Er, Harry, why don’t you take this one, mate?”

Harry sighs. “This is Kingsley Shacklebolt,” he explains, pointing to the bald dude. “He’s the Minister. And what happened to the forest?”

Naruto isn’t totally sure what a Minister is, so he decides to ignore that part and also the question about the forest. He gives Kingsley his best grin. “I’m Naruto! Nice to meet you. I like your hat!”

Kingsley blinks at him. “Er, thank you,” he says. 

“Never seen a hat like that,” Naruto tells him. “Hey, so, what’s a Minister? Is that something at the school?” 

Kingsley blinks again, long and slow, and looks at Harry before answering. Harry just shakes his head. 

Kingsley turns back to Naruto. “No, not quite. The Minister for Magic heads the Ministry of Magic here in the U.K.,” he explains. 

“Ohhh.” That Naruto vaguely recognizes from the mission specs. “So like, the civilian government, except you’re all civilians. Hey, so does that make you the head honcho around here or what?” 

Before Kingsley can answer, McGonagall comes swooping in with a book in her hands. 

“This should help with what you were asking about, Minister,” she murmurs, and hands it over. She turns to Naruto. “I’ve asked you up here to discuss a security threat,” she tells him, and looks down at him over her glasses. “Will your partner be arriving shortly?”

“Yeah, no worries,” Naruto says, and walks over to the window. He flings it open and leans out. 

“Sasuke!” He yells. “Get in here already! I know you’re creeping around out there, I can feel your chakra!”

Naruto feels the air in the room warp, and everyone jumps as Sasuke appears inside. The wizards all pull their sticks out. Naruto rolls his eyes. Using the Rinnegan instead of coming in through the window like a normal person was totally unnecessary. 

“Show-off,” Naruto accuses, but Sasuke doesn’t acknowledge him. 

He’s been doing that a lot the past few weeks, ever since the kids arrived, and Naruto has no idea what set him off this time. Naruto thought that things were going okay between them, but apparently not. 

A huge snake eye appears in the window, and all the wizards gape, then start pointing their sticks. 

“No, no, no,” Naruto cries, waving his hands a little frantically. “That’s Sasuke’s snake, it’s fine, everyone put your sticks up!” Naruto can’t even imagine what Sasuke’s reaction to an attack right now would be, because he hasn’t been sleeping or eating or anything, and he’s been twitchy even around Naruto. If necessary, Naruto could take him, but the castle would probably be destroyed. Kakashi would be livid. 

He’s pretty sure he recognizes the snake's scale color, at least, from their battle against Madara. Aoda definitely speaks to humans, so that’s good news for diplomacy. Probably. 

McGonagall is the first to regain the power of speech. “Is that snake,” she starts, and her voice is scarily reminiscent of an angry Tsunade, “wrapped around _my school?”_

Naruto laughs nervously. “Ah, yes? Probably? I don’t think Aoda can fly, soooo…”

Aoda hisses something at Sasuke, and Sasuke hisses back. Not for the first time, Naruto wishes he could understand what they were saying. It’s been over a week since Sasuke last spoke to Naruto, but he’s always talking to his snakes. 

“He’s a Parselmouth?” Kingsley asks. He’s frowning. 

Harry nods.

“Parselmouth” is what these people call anyone who can talk to snakes. Sasuke couldn’t always, Naruto doesn’t think, but after the war ended he spent nearly three months holed up with his snakes, and when he came back he could speak their language. 

That happened right after they got their seal. One morning Sasuke announced that his snakes were going to summon him to their cave, so he could complete his training with them. It would help him master the Rinnegan, he’d explained. And then he was gone. Naruto spent those months training and training and training until he couldn’t think about Sasuke being so far away when he’d only just gotten him back. They had the seal, but it wasn’t enough; Naruto wanted him _there_. 

Sasuke had come back, though, and that’s what Naruto has been reminding himself about these past few weeks. Sasuke may be hiding now—may seem like he’s gone, in some desperately significant way—but Sasuke came back, and Naruto didn’t even have to make him. And whatever is getting to Sasuke now—well, Naruto will figure it out. He’ll figure it out, and he’ll do what he has to do to make things right again. 

Smiling sheepishly at McGonagall, who looks like she’s about to seriously lose her shit, Naruto bows at Aoda in the window. 

“Hi Aoda!” Naruto says. “You’re scaring the civilians, so you should probably come back later. No battle here.” 

Aoda blinks slowly at him, then looks at Sasuke. “If that is what Master wishes,” he says, and his voice booms strangely in the room—as if he were hissing in Naruto’s ear, rather than outside by the window. 

Sasuke grunts, but he makes the hand seal to send Aoda home anyway. Aoda disappears in a poof of smoke. 

“Thanks,” Naruto tells him. 

Then he turns back to the wizards. “Sorry guys,” he tells them. “That was just Aoda though, nothing to worry about! He and Sasuke were probably just hanging out earlier.” 

There. Diplomacy accomplished. No one ever thinks Naruto is any good at it, but he totally is. And that’s one thing that Sasuke will never beat him at, because Sasuke’s people skills are even worse than Sai’s, and that’s really saying something. 

“That snake belongs to you?” Kingsley questions.

Sasuke hisses something long and vulgar sounding at him. Naruto groans and covers his face with his hands. No, Sasuke is definitely never going to be a diplomat, and Naruto is going to get sent home for letting Sasuke start the Hidden Continent’s first inter-dimensional incident. 

Naruto throws an arm over Sasuke’s shoulders and grins at Kingsley. He grips Sasuke’s shoulder with his hand very tightly, which Kakashi says is ninja sign language for “You better shut up and let me handle this or I’ll gut you.” Naruto usually ignores it when Kakashi does it to him, though. 

“Sasuke summons snakes!” Naruto explains. “Just like I summon toads! But summoning contracts are private, you know, so it’s rude to ask about other people’s animals. You can ask about mine, though, I don’t mind! My toads are great, you should meet Gamabunta if I can get him to show up. He’s even bigger than Aoda! I mean, kind of. Never play poker with him, though, ‘cause he totally cheats.” 

Kingsley starts to say something, but Naruto lets go of Sasuke and claps him on the shoulder. “So! Let’s get started on this security meeting, yeah?” Naruto plops down on McGonagall’s desk. “Come on, come on, everyone sit down, let’s go. Sasuke you too—or you can just stand behind me, that’s cool too, I guess.”

Naruto chances a glance behind him, and Sasuke is just—blank. Naruto doesn’t understand, doesn’t understand how Sasuke can look so much worse now, not when his revenge is finally over, not when he’s finally home again, here with Naruto. Belatedly, Naruto notices that Sasuke’s Rinnegan is visible again. He’s been keeping it covered with a henge, to prevent questions, but apparently not anymore. 

Naruto is really, really not looking forward to his next report to Kakashi. 

Harry pulls out a scroll and smooths it out on the desk. There’s a picture of a man on it, and he’s moving, which is just one of many, many weird things about this world. 

“This is Rodolphus Lestrange,” he tells them. “He was a Death Eater, and very close to Voldemort.” He pulls out another scroll, this one with a different picture. “And this is Yaxley, also a Death Eater, and previously head of Magical Law Enforcement.”

Kingsley nods. “They’re both powerful wizards, Yaxley in particular, and we have reason to believe that they are currently on the run together, and potentially targeting a student, Draco Malfoy.” 

Another picture, this time from McGonagall, of a thin blonde with a sharp nose. Unlike the other two, this guy looks to be about Naruto and Sasuke’s age. 

“Draco is here to study for his NEWTs,” McGonagall explains, “alongside several other students who would have graduated already if not for the…interruptions…last year. Lestrange is his uncle by marriage.”

Ron nods grimly. “Malfoy’s a right git, but he turned out alright in the end.”

“And his mum saved my life,” Harry explains. “We think that Lestrange and Yaxley are after him because of that. Lestrange sent a note to the Malfoy Manor, and Malfoy apparently got something similar by owl.”

“Now that they’ve been spotted together,” Kingsley adds. “It’s a very high priority that they’re either captured or dealt with permanently. They’re dangerous, and we’ve had our hands full dealing with all the problems they’ve caused with the Muggles.” 

Muggles are also civilians, but they can’t use magic at all. Naruto hasn’t been given much information about them, but he knows they were targeted in the last war. 

“The Headmistress said she didn’t have a bingo book,” Naruto says, “but these look like pages from one. Do Aurors carry one?” 

“A bingo book?” Kingsley asks.

“Yeah, you know, a book that’s got pictures and rewards and stuff for all the rouge ninja! Or wizards, in your case. And well, there’s people in the bingo book that aren’t missing-nin, too, so I guess just anyone with a price on their head. But it would help if I had pictures of all the known enemies, and whether they’re a priority to capture or kill or what. And abilities, too, especially if any of them are immortal or whatever.”

The wizards all flinch at the world “immortal,” but none of them say anything about it. 

“Well, we don’t have one of those,” Kingsley tells him, “but I can get Weasley here to bring you a stack of wanted posters. Probably should have done that already.”

“Great!” Naruto tells him. “That’ll be extra good for Sasuke, since he’s in charge of patrolling the forest, and that’s where we’ll probably be attacked from, if I had to guess. The forest here is super cool, you know that? I went to find Sasuke the other day and he was hanging out with this dude that was like, half a horse, half a person. Crazy!” 

“There are no centaurs, where you’re from?”

“Nah,” Naruto tells him. “We’ve got plenty of weird people, but no horse-people that I know of.”

“Hmm.” Kingsley purses his lips. “You know, Minerva here hasn’t told me much about your world. Where are you from, exactly?”

“Konoha, of course!” Naruto tells him, and fist pumps. He starts to tell them about how he’s going to be the Hokage, but then he remembers that he’s not supposed to tell these people anything. He brings his arm down slowly. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it,” Kingsley says. “How did you get here from there, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

“You’ll have to ask the Headmistress that, she’s the one who brought us here!” Naruto laughs a little, looking around the room for a distraction. Naruto is very bad at lying, so he probably shouldn’t let Kingsley ask him too many questions. His eyes catch on the bowl everyone was standing around earlier, which is filled with some sort of silvery liquid.

He points. “What’s in that weird bowl? Looks cool!” 

He leans in to touch, and suddenly the room is totally different. It’s very dark, and there’s a strange man with a hooked nose, and a child is screaming in the background. McGonagall is saying something, maybe screaming, Naruto can’t make it out, and the man is saying, “Minerva, control yourself,” and Naruto realizes from the strange, wobbly feeling of it all that this is a genjutsu. 

He forms the hand seal to release the illusion, and his whole body jerks before the room is regular again. Except now Sasuke is standing in front of him, sword drawn, and the wizards are all on the other side of the room. 

“The fuck kind of genjutsu was that!” Naruto yells. “I hate genjutsu, don’t do that to me. And why were you there!” He points to McGonagall. 

Sasuke rounds on Naruto. “The fuck was that, dumbass?” he growls, and slaps Naruto upside the head. Naruto grins stupidly at him. Sasuke is talking again! In regular human words and everything. And to Naruto, finally, finally. Naruto hates being ignored, he hates it, and it’s worse when it’s Sasuke. Everything seems to hit a little harder, when it’s Sasuke. 

“Don’t touch shit when you don’t know what it does,” Sasuke tells him. “Moron.” He turns back towards the wizards, but Naruto can feel Sasuke’s chakra roiling, enraged, not frozen. He can’t stop smiling. 

“Well,” Kingsley says mildly. “I guess that answers a few questions about your competence.”

“Hey, hey, are you talking to me,” Naruto starts, indignant, but then he realizes Kingsley was talking to Sasuke, who is holding everyone’s sticks in his hand. 

“Oh,” Naruto says. “Sasuke, give them their sticks back. It wasn’t their fault I touched the bowl.” 

Sasuke grunts and puts the sticks back down on the desk. 

Ron blinks a few times, like he’s just remembered how. “That,” he starts, “was mental. I didn’t even see you move, man!” 

Sasuke graces them all with a disdainful look. 

Naruto grins at him again. “Thanks for coming to save me, Sasuke. But I totally didn’t need your help! I could take these guys any day, genjutsu or no genjutsu!” 

Sasuke narrows his eyes at Naruto before melting back into his place against the wall, clearly done with the conversation.

Naruto turns to McGonagall. “But seriously, what was that? Is that some sort of bowl that casts genjutsu or what? I didn’t know you guys could do that!”

“I’m not sure what you mean by genjutsu,” McGonagall says. “But the bowl is called a Penseive. It allows the user to experience memories more…objectively, and to share them with others.” 

“So that was a memory? Whose memory was it? Was it yours?”

She purses her lips, looking uncomfortable. “Yes.”

“That’s cool, I guess. Kind of scary, though, don’t know why you’d wanna look at that memory again.” He looks over at Sasuke, who is quietly radiating killer intent from the side of the room. Probably time to get out of here, then. 

“Well, Sasuke and I better get back to patrolling, you know, gotta keep an eye out for bad guys and protect the castle and stuff. Nice meeting you,” he waves at Kingsley, “and good seeing everyone again! Don’t forget about the posters you’re gonna bring me.” 

He collects the posters on the desk, and the picture of the target, too. 

“Okay, bye!” He jumps out the window, because Sasuke really had the right idea, skipping the stairs and just walking up the tower instead. Sasuke follows close behind.

Naruto pauses right below the window, and thinks about eavesdropping on the wizards just in case they’re talking about Sasuke or something, but he decides against it. Sasuke passes by him. 

“Hey, hey, Sasuke, wait up! Where are you going, I want to come too!”

Sasuke doesn’t answer, just speeds up. Naruto deflates, feeling Sasuke’s chakra returning to its usual state, all cold and subdued. 

Naruto finds a window ledge to sit on, and watches Sasuke disappear into the forest. Lately, Sasuke’s been spending most of his time there, either the forest or the Chamber of Secrets. 

The last time Sasuke spoke to him before yelling at him in McGonagall’s office was in the Chamber of Secrets. He’d been down there in the middle of the night, and Naruto had gone to find him, because he couldn’t sleep. And Sasuke had just been sitting there with the snake bones, like the first time Naruto found him there. 

“What are you doing down here, bastard?” Naruto had asked. “It’s late, you should be sleeping. And have you even eaten anything at all today? Sakura would kill me if she knew about this.” 

Sasuke had turned around, his head swiveling to face Naruto with wide, blank eyes. Naruto didn’t think he was going to say anything, but he did. 

“When a summon dies,” he’d murmured, “Its body is called back to the spirit world.” He’d turned back to the skeleton in front of him. 

“When I was summoned to Ryuuchi Cave,” he continued, “Manda’s body was still there. He died protecting me from Deidara. And there was still—” his voice had cut off. For a long time, they’d just sat there together, listening to the steady drip of water against stone, and the quiet creaks of the castle settling. 

“The snakes eat their dead,” he’d finished, finally, and Naruto hadn’t known what to say, what to do. He’d gone and sat down beside Sasuke, tried to ask him what all that was about, but he didn’t know how to ask. He’d thought about Kakashi saying, _Sasuke came here to die_. And what had come out of his mouth was him asking Sasuke if it was true. 

Sasuke had twisted to face him again, and in that moment, he’d just looked so, so tired. Looked a thousand years old. 

He hadn’t answered, though, and until today, he hadn’t said anything else to Naruto since. 

Naruto rubs at his arm, digging his thumb into the seal there, and wishes that it really worked like Kakashi said, wishes that he really could use it to read Sasuke’s heart. He can feel his chakra, but he still doesn’t know what Sasuke’s thinking, still doesn’t know what’s wrong, what he can do to fix things. 

Naruto slips into Sage Mode, lets his awareness of the world around him increase so that he feels the breeze curling around the castle and into the forest, feels the ripples gathering on the lake and the solid thrum of energy in the dirt. All around him, there are insects calling out to each other, animals scurrying about their business, children milling around inside the castle. But it’s Sasuke that calls to him like a beacon, lighting up the forest around him with the force of his chakra. Naruto sometimes thinks that Sasuke has been burned into his heart, deeper and more powerfully than anyone else. It’s more than just their reincarnation, Naruto knows. They’re held together by a history of their own, a connection magnified by loneliness.

It’s not that Naruto doesn’t have other people, because he does. He has a family now, has teachers and friends and a whole village full of people he loves. But it’s not the same. And it’s not complete, not without Sasuke. 

Sasuke told Naruto once that Naruto was the only light in his life. When Naruto feels like this, with Sasuke so close and so far away at the same time, he reminds himself that Sasuke needs him, that Sasuke feels the same, even if he doesn’t understand his feelings in quite the same way as Naruto does. 

And today was good, because even if Sasuke only came out for a few moments, he was there, he was really there and he cared about Naruto. He jumped to protect Naruto even though they haven’t actually spoken in over a week, even though he’d been acting like Naruto didn’t even exist, like he could see right through him. So even if it’s hard, Naruto knows he can do it. He can help Sasuke. And if other people think it’s impossible, it doesn’t matter, because Naruto has been doing impossible things his whole life and that’s never stopped him. He’s not Konoha’s number one most unpredictable ninja for nothing. He’s the kind of ninja that saved the world, he’s the kind of ninja that’s going to be Hokage, and he’s the kind of ninja that’s going to save a friend, even if it’s harder than he thought it would be. Even if it takes his whole life, Naruto is going to save Sasuke, or he’s going to die trying. That’s Naruto’s ninja way. 

Naruto realizes that he’s still in Sage Mode, and that he’s been broadcasting all of this without really thinking about it. Sage Mode makes the environment around him sensitive to his emotions, and he can feel the life around him moving more intensely, invigorated by Naruto’s words without even having to hear them. He lets himself feel the kids laughing in the hallways, the animals cuddled up in their nests, the people in the lake darting around in the water. Sasuke, he knows, is standing in the middle of the forest, as still and silent as stone. But he’s not stone, he’s Sasuke, and Naruto is going to get him back!

Naruto yells that last bit out loud, and it feels good. 

 

Naruto wakes up the next morning with Sasuke beside him. There’s a snake in the bed, too, the pretty one with iridescent scales. Her name’s Miu. Naruto tells her good morning and tries not to be creeped out by Sasuke bringing snakes into bed with them. 

Naruto has been enthusiastic about his plan to fix Sasuke from the very beginning, but he realized yesterday that the first thing he had to do was actually come up with a plan. So while he’s patrolling, he lists all the things that hadn’t worked so far: sparring (except that last battle, but Naruto doesn’t want to have a repeat of that, not when they both almost died), punching Sasuke in the face for being such a jerk, yelling at Sasuke about being such a jerk, following Sasuke to the ends of the earth, or trying to help Sasuke make friends. 

That cuts out all of Naruto’s usual methods and also everything helpful that Kakashi said to him before they left, so Naruto spends a lot of time thinking. He sits in on magic classes for most of the day, hoping to see something inspiring, but he still doesn’t come up with any good ideas. He writes Tsunade a letter asking for advice, but decides not to send it. He writes a letter to Iruka, too, and he does send that one, because Iruka is probably freaking out about how far away Naruto is right now. He doesn’t even start his report to Kakashi. 

When he’s done writing letters, he goes to have dinner in the Great Hall again, since McGonagall told him he was welcome to eat with the staff whenever he wanted. That doesn’t help, though, because Naruto is slowly but surely coming to the realization that not only is there never any ramen on the menu, these people have actually never heard of ramen in their lives. He spends most of dinner trying to figure out how to convince Kakashi to send him ramen from Konoha. 

After dinner, he’s wandering a little aimlessly, just about ready to start banging his head against the wall until he actually thinks of something to do about Sasuke, when a flash of pale blonde hair catches his eye. That’s their mark, Draco, so Naruto decides to follow him around for a while and see where he hangs out. That way he’ll know where he needs to keep an extra eye on. 

Draco doesn’t look like he does in his picture, all smug and sly. Instead, he looks tired, like Sasuke, with bags under his eyes and limp hair. His sweater looks too big for him, and Naruto is pretty sure he wasn’t that thin in the picture, either. 

He follows Draco into a room filled with books, presumably the library. Naruto’s never actually been in here, but he’s seen it on his map. Draco disappears into the far corner of the room. Naruto starts to follow, but then he notices Ron sitting at a table with a girl. 

“Ron!” Naruto shouts. “I didn’t know you were coming today!”

The girl shushes him. “This is a library,” she whispers, wagging her finger at him. She’s cute, with brown hair and pink cheeks, but she has way too many books stacked around her. Naruto is getting bored just looking at them.

“Sorry,” he whispers back. “I’ll be super quiet, don’t worry! I’m a ninja, I’m way good at being stealthy.” 

He creeps over to the table and sits down beside Ron. “So what are you doing here? Who’s the girl?”

Ron flushes bright red, all the way up to his ears. It’s kind of hilarious, and Naruto tries to imagine Gaara looking like that, but he can’t quite make the image fit. 

“This is Hermione,” Ron says. “My, er, girlfriend.” His voice cracks a little, and the girl blushes, too. “Anyway, I brought you those posters.” He pulls out a bunch of scrolls all rolled together and dumps them on the table.

Naruto gathers all of the scrolls up and creates a shadow clone to bring them to his room. Once he’s done complaining about being used as a pack mule, they fist bump, and the clone leaves.

“What kind of spell was that?” Hermione asks, eyes wide. “I didn’t even see you use your wand!”

“Er,” Naruto scratches his head. “That was a shadow clone, you know, just a regular ninjutsu.”

“I’ve never heard of ninjutsu before,” she says, sounding skeptical. 

Ron interrupts. “Naruto is one of the guys I was telling you about, Hermione. He’s a ninja, he’s not a regular wizard like we are.”

Hermione frowns and mutters something that sounds like “even more to do”, and then something else about newts. Naruto decides to ignore that, because he’s already given up on understanding wizards. Magic doesn’t make sense and neither do any of the people here, which Naruto figures is fine, because most shinobi are pretty weird too, if not outright nuts. If Hermione wants to complain to herself about amphibians then that’s none of Naruto’s business.

“Oh,” Ron says, like he's just remembered something. “Harry wanted me to ask about your partner. What’s up with his eye? I mean, is he okay?”

Naruto waves him off. “Yeah, that’s just his eye. It’s a ninja thing.” 

Ron bites his lip. “Hey, man, are you sure that guy can be trusted? He seems a little off his rocker, if you know what I mean. And then there’s the snakes, and the Parseltongue and all that.” 

Naruto growls, but Hermione jumps in before he can even say anything. “Being a Parselmouth doesn’t mean anything, Ron,” Hermione says. “It’s historically associated with dark wizards, yes, but you’ll remember that Harry was a Parselmouth, and he certainly wasn’t a dark wizard.” 

“Yeah, and he was only a Parselmouth because he had a piece of evil git inside of him, so yeah it did mean something, Hermione!” Ron turns back to Naruto, looking expectant.

Naruto crosses his arms over his chest. “Sasuke is my best friend! I don’t care how many snakes he talks to, he’s not Orochimaru, and he’s not your evil snake guy either. He can totally be trusted, and if I hear any more shit about it, I’m gonna start breaking arms!” 

He stands up, ready to really start ranting, but Ron waves him down. 

“Sorry, sorry, mate, just checking, you know, gotta be sure.”

Naruto sits down reluctantly. “Sasuke’s great. He’s the best ninja in the whole world besides me, and when I’m Hokage, we’re fixing things together! And if he fucks up then I’ll take care of it, so you don’t have anything to worry about, anyway.” 

Too late, Naruto remembers about not talking about the ninja world. 

“Orochimaru?” Hermione asks. “Hokage?” 

Before Naruto has to answer, though, some old lady comes and kicks them all out of the library. 

Outside, Naruto turns to Ron. All this yelling about Sasuke is giving Naruto an idea. 

“Hey, hey, Ron,” he starts. “We’re friends, right?”

“Um, sure, I guess.” 

“Okay, great! So, so. Hypothetically. What would you do if you had a friend who was…really sad. About stuff. Or maybe not sad, maybe just angry, it’s hard to tell. And he’s acting really tired and quiet and shit and you don’t know what to do about it, so you try all the regular stuff, like sparring and punching that bastard in the face and stuff, but he’s still upset. You think. And maybe ignoring you a little bit.”

“Hypothetically?” Ron raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, totally hypothetical. I mean, I’m asking for a friend. A different friend, not the upset one. Because he’s hypothetical.” 

“Okayyyy,” Ron stretches out the word. “Well, maybe you should, I don’t know, talk to him. Hypothetically, I mean.” 

Naruto scuffs his feet against the floor. “But I mean, what if he won’t listen to me.”

Hermione hums thoughtfully. “Well, do you know what he’s upset about? I mean, is it something you did? Or is he upset about something else?”

“Something else, I think. I mean, a lot of stuff happened. It’s not like he doesn’t have stuff to be upset about, it’s just, I don’t know how to help him.” He pauses. “Hypothetically.”

“Well,” Hermione says. “Maybe you should see if he’ll talk to you about the things that upset him. Or see if there’s someone else he’d talk to.”

“I don’t think he’d talk to anyone else,” Naruto explains. “He doesn’t really talk to anyone else at all.”

“In that case,” Hermione says, hoisting her pile of books back up to her chest, “A lot of Muggle therapists start out by having patients talk about their experiences, and then they go over how that made them feel. But they start out with things that are easier to talk about, and then work their way up to the difficult stuff. You could try that.”

Naruto is pretty sure that nothing short of torture would make Sasuke talk about anything that happened, and probably not even that. So maybe asking for help was a bust, after all. He sighs. Maybe he’ll have an idea in his sleep and then when he wakes up he’ll know what to do. 

“Well, I’m gonna head up to my room,” he tells them. “Thanks for all the advice! And nice meeting you, Hermione! Ron, your girlfriend’s way prettier than you are, good job on that, man.”

He waves goodbye, ignoring Ron’s spluttering, and heads towards his room. Just as he turns the corner, he hears Ron saying, “Wonder who that was about.”

“It was hypothetical!” he yells, and he hears Ron jump. 

Cackling, Naruto changes his mind about going to his room. Instead, he sets off to find Sasuke and drag him to bed. Sasuke is going to sleep again tonight, damn it, or Naruto is going to spend the whole night bothering him until he wishes he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there's chapter three! Since I'm introducing bad guys I feel like I should note that this is in no way an action story. The plot is mostly centered around Naruto and Sasuke's changing relationship, so don't expect crazy fights and final boss showdowns and stuff. But if you're here for emotional resolution then this is the story for you! I mean, I hope so, at least. :) 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading, everyone, and please let me know what you thought! I'll try to get back to you before the next chapter is out, especially if you have questions. Also, the feedback from the last two chapters was super motivating, so thanks a ton to everyone!


	4. The Penseive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke broods about everything, drinks spiked tea with Hagrid, and almost murders Naruto more than once. Naruto nags Sasuke about his life choices.

Sasuke has almost managed to fall asleep when Naruto shoots straight up and yells, “The bowl!”

Sasuke has the Sharingan whirling and lightning gathering in his hand before he even registers what just happened. Naruto waves his arms around wildly. 

“No, no, sorry! There’s no attack, calm down!” 

Sasuke forcibly releases the Chidori without completing the attack, sending sparks scuttling harmlessly up his arm. The chirping stops abruptly, leaving the room feeling too quiet, and Sasuke glances around, checking for threats. 

“The fuck was that,” he grits out, feeling on edge. His fingers itch for his sword.

“Calm down,” Naruto repeats, his voice low and even now. “Sasuke, it’s just me.” 

Sasuke realizes that lightning is starting to form in his hand again. He takes a deep breath, shoots Chidori Senbon into the walls, and clenches his fists so that his fingernails dig into the skin. 

Naruto comes closer, eyes wide. Sasuke dodges automatically, realizing as he does so that his Sharingan is still activated, and Naruto clenches his teeth, eyes darting to the side. 

“I’m sorry,” Naruto says again, still in that calm voice from before. “I didn’t mean to scare—wake you up.” 

“I wasn’t scared,” Sasuke tells him, and it’s the truth. It’s been a long time since Sasuke felt fear. 

Something flashes across Naruto’s face, gone before Sasuke can make sense of it. 

“I know you weren’t.” His eyes find Sasuke’s. “Sorry.” 

Sasuke grunts. 

Naruto leans forward again, very slowly, and takes Sasuke’s hands in his own. He peels Sasuke’s fingers away from his palms.

“We need to bandage these,” he says, but Sasuke shakes his head.

“They’ll heal.” He wipes his hands on the sheet.

Naruto scrunches up his nose. “Gross, Sasuke,” he whines. 

Sasuke takes several slow, deep breaths, trying to relax. Too agitated to lay back down, he pushes himself up and out of the bed. Naruto follows as Sasuke heads to the window.

“Where are you going?” he demands. “You need to sleep, Sasuke, you can’t just wander around all night.”

Sasuke pushes the window open, but doesn’t jump out. The windowsill is wide, as the castle walls are several feet thick, so there’s plenty of room for him to sit. He eases his back against one wall and his feet against the other, knees crunched towards his chest, and rests his temple against the cool metal edge of the open window. His fingers tap restlessly against his legs. 

Naruto sits beside him, quietly for once, and his head leans against Sasuke’s shoulder. He’s warm. It’s already getting cold at night here, even in late September, and the wind sends a chill down Sasuke’s spine despite Naruto radiating heat beside him. Without meaning to, Sasuke finds himself leaning in a little closer. 

Their window overlooks the lake, and even in the dead of night, Sasuke can make out the restless movements of giant tentacles. Sasuke is reminded of the lake from his childhood, of long, long hours alone on the dock, Itachi’s cold eyes spinning endlessly in his thoughts. It seems a lifetime ago, now; as if he can no longer reconcile the way he is now with the person he was then. 

Even when he’d had a family, they’d been—busy. Before he grew old enough to fend for himself, he’d mostly been shuffled around from one relative to the next, whoever was both available and not skilled or able-bodied enough to be of use elsewhere. His great-great aunt, who tended to the shrine, often took charge of his care. Sasuke remembers stepping into the river with her in the mornings, the water almost too high for Sasuke even right beside the bank, and her throaty, worn voice as she pointed out the fish darting between their legs, the reeds growing beside them, the rocks beneath their feet. She told Sasuke of the great presence that inhabited all things, and which called to the spirit after death. 

Over time, Sasuke has come to his own conclusions about death; he envisions it as a peaceful dissolution into nothingness, as empty and tranquil as a deep, dreamless sleep. 

Naruto makes a noise against Sasuke’s shoulder, something between a snore and sneeze, and Sasuke’s lip curls at the unmistakable feel of drool seeping through his shirt. He elbows Naruto in the stomach. 

Naruto jerks awake, instinctively raising his arms up for defense. “Huh? What—what was that for, you jerk!” 

Sasuke cuts his eyes toward his shoulder, and Naruto flushes as soon as he sees the wet spot there. He crosses his arms, still red. “It’s just a little bit. Not like you’ve never seen drool before! You probably drool in your sleep all the time, you asshole. Anyways, I was sleeping, I can’t help it.”

Sasuke hums noncommittally, sending Naruto into a full-scale rant about his sleeping habits, or lack thereof. He’s felt restless, lately, and sleep has been hard to come by despite the weariness that aches in his bones. What little sleep he has gotten has been shallow and unsettled. The night before, he’d managed only after summoning Miu; he’s always slept easier with someone on watch. 

Naruto’s rant is interrupted by a loud gurgle from his stomach. Sasuke snorts.

“I’m hungry, you bastard, don’t laugh at me! You should be hungry too, I know you didn’t eat anything today. You have to eat, Sasuke! And if I have to hold you down and shove food down your throat, don’t think I won’t, because I fucking will!” 

Sasuke doesn’t question how Naruto is so well-informed about his eating habits. Naruto’s incessant stalking is just one more thing he’s become accustomed to. He gets up from the windowsill, pushing Naruto off in the process. 

Naruto splutters from the floor while Sasuke pulls a thin robe on over his sleepwear. 

“Come on, dead last. I’ll take you to the kitchen.”

“There’s a kitchen? I thought they only had magic food here!”

Sasuke rolls his eyes. “The food is delivered and prepared with magic, but magic can’t create food. You’d know this if you’d bothered to read anything that woman gave you.” He gestures to the pile of books on one side of the room.

“Reading is hard,” Naruto complains. “And super boring. I don’t have time for that, I have to work on my ninja skills and guard the castle and stuff! Anyways, you read all that shit, you should just tell me what I need to know. Don’t nag me.”

As if Naruto doesn’t devote half their conversations to nagging Sasuke about god-knows-what. Sasuke heads out the door, and Naruto comes chasing after him, pausing to grab a blanket from the bed and wrap it around himself like there’s not a robe for him hanging on a hook in the bathroom. Naruto always sleeps in just pants and nothing else, but he’s always so warm, even though the nights have been getting colder. It was even like that when they were kids, like Naruto just runs ten degrees hotter than everyone else. It must be the Kyuubi, Sasuke thinks.

They make it to the kitchens without running into anyone, and Sasuke tickles the pear and lets them in. Naruto is still relatively terrified of house-elves, which Sasuke privately finds amusing. He has little interest in the creatures, himself, although he appreciates how unobtrusive and efficient they are. 

“Naruto is hungry,” he tells them, and they fall all over themselves making food for Naruto, who is inordinately upset that none of them know how to prepare ramen. 

“We will find a recipe for this ‘ramen,’ Master Naruto, we promise,” one of them cries. “Please forgive us for this inexcusable lack of hospitality!” 

Sasuke interrupts the crying and kowtowing with a scowl. “He’ll be fine,” he tells them. “Just give him whatever, the idiot will eat anything.” 

Sasuke and Naruto are ushered to a small table, and a house-elf pours hot tea. Sasuke sips at his as they’re served some sort of hot noodle soup. It’s probably a failed attempt at ramen, but it’s not bad. Sasuke likes it much better than ramen; it’s less salty, and has more vegetables. 

They’re sent back to their rooms with a tray filled with snacks and a fresh pot of tea. 

“How’d you know how to get in there, anyway?” Naruto asks. “Was that in those books? It’s not on the map they gave me. That map sucks, by the way. Your snake cave isn’t on there either.”

Sasuke actually found the kitchen while spying on those two Aurors, and by extension the girlfriend. Although their mission here is ostensibly to guard the school, Sasuke’s actual mission is information gathering, and assessing the threat level of this heretofore unknown realm. So far, Sasuke has been largely unimpressed. Magic has enormous offensive potential, but Sasuke has seen little evidence of that potential being met, and even less evidence of combat training in anyone, even Aurors, who are supposedly trained fighters. Sasuke has no idea how they managed to have a war at all, much less how one side defeated the other. He suspects interference of some sort; magic does, after all, seem to have a will of its own. 

Naruto sets the tray down on the little table in the corner of their room. Sasuke sits at a chair and pours himself some tea, but Naruto stays standing. Eventually, he pulls the blanket around Sasuke’s shoulders, and sits down on the floor at Sasuke’s feet. 

Sasuke gives him a cracker from the tray. 

“Why are you on the floor?”

Naruto doesn’t answer, although he does eat the cracker. He shuffles around so that he’s in between Sasuke’s legs, his head leaned against Sasuke’s thigh. Sasuke waits; he can feel Naruto’s thoughts brewing, his chakra churning restlessly. Unconsciously, Sasuke rubs at the seal on his arm.

“I’m glad you’re talking to me again,” Naruto says, finally. “I hate it when you ignore me.” 

“I wasn’t ignoring you,” Sasuke tells him. 

“Yes you were,” Naruto says, and his voice is cracked. “You were upset, and you wouldn’t talk to me. You didn’t say anything to me all week! And then, and then you yelled at me in the office, and I thought you were done ignoring me, but then afterwards you just left, and I—”

Naruto cuts off, hiding his face in Sasuke’s sleep pants. Awkwardly, Sasuke puts his hand on Naruto’s head, not sure what to do.

“Sorry,” Naruto finally croaks out. “You’re not still upset, are you? About what I said in the basement.”

Sasuke freezes, something painful caught in his lungs. It takes a moment before he can breathe again. He thinks of that last battle between them, feeling lost and wild and out of control, tears hot on his cheeks even as he fought, screaming at Naruto, not even words, just anything, anything to keep moving. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Sasuke tells him. “I was never upset in the first place.” And Sasuke wasn’t upset. He just didn’t know how to tell Naruto the truth, or how to tell Naruto what he wanted to hear. 

He’d wanted to say, _When I die, give my body to my snakes_. He’d wanted to say, _I came there to destroy everything_. But the words wouldn’t come. 

“I was talking to Ron today,” Naruto tells him, “and Hermione, that's his girlfriend. She’s really smart, like Sakura. And she was telling me about Muggles, and stuff, and I thought that maybe—I mean, I know you aren’t going to talk to anyone about anything. But she was saying that it can help, and I just thought that, you know, maybe if you don’t want to talk, you could—you could show me stuff. That happened.”

Sasuke doesn’t understand. “Show you?”

“Yeah,” Naruto says, clearly warming up to the idea. “Show me. Like, I thought about it because of the genjutsu bowl from earlier. I mean, we don’t need the bowl, obviously, you don’t need a bowl to cast genjutsu, but I just thought you could do like the bowl did, and make a memory genjutsu, and then I could see! It doesn’t have to be bad stuff, just whatever, Hermione said you should start with easy things, anyway, and I just—I mean, you were gone for so long, and I wish—I spent all this time wondering where you were and what was happening to you and if you were okay, and I still, I want to know, you could show me, and we could talk about it, too, if you wanted, and, and,” Naruto pauses to take a breath, “I just think it’s a really good idea, okay!” 

Sasuke thinks of his first time caught in a genjutsu, thinks of being caught in Itachi’s Tsukiyomi, watching his whole family, aunts and uncles and cousins and even the civilians who ran their stores, dying at Itachi’s hands. He thinks of watching his mother’s body drop to the ground at Itachi’s feet, her blood still wet on his sword, thinks of his father saying, _Itachi, my son_. 

And always, always, he watches the scene play out from behind Itachi’s eyes. As if he held the sword in his own hands. 

Sasuke stands up. “I’ll think about it,” he says, voice hoarse. “I’m going to bed.”

That night, Sasuke dreams of the ocean. He dreams that he wakes up surrounded by water, waves lapping against his sides and rocking him gently back and forth. He finds himself standing on top of the water, and he turns in a circle, activates the Sharingan and still sees nothing but water for miles and miles, an endless stretch of ocean. In the dream, he lays back down in the water, and this time, he lets the waves pull him underneath. He breathes in and it doesn’t burn, doesn’t hurt, but he can feel water gathering in his lungs, weighing him down as effortlessly as if it were concrete. And in that moment, he feels a peace he has never known before, feels weightless and warm and calm. Feels a great presence calling out to him, weaving him into a web made of all things. 

When he wakes up, the feeling is gone, and Sasuke’s face is wet with tears he doesn’t remember shedding. 

 

Sasuke spends the next morning in the Forbidden Forest, training in the middle of the clearing that Aoda made a few days ago by assuming his full size in the middle of the trees, apparently to impress Hagrid. They’d run into him accidentally, and he’d bombarded Aoda with questions about the spirit world and animal summons. After Aoda blew up to his actual size, Hagrid had been appropriately awed, and Aoda had practically preened, even allowing Hagrid to pet his scales. Even Sasuke was a little amused, watching his largest summon roll around like a dog.

As Sasuke goes through the last of his forms, Hagrid and Ronan, the pale centaur, come to stand at the edge of the clearing. Sasuke ignores them, finishing up, and then retrieves oil and a rag from his pack for his sword. He sits under a tree on the opposite side of the clearing, but Hagrid, who has apparently decided that they’re friends, comes up to him anyways. Ronan follows. 

“Sasuke! Good to see yeh,” Hagrid beams. 

“You summon animal spirits,” Ronan says, in lieu of a greeting.

Sasuke nods curtly, intent on cleaning his sword. 

“Your hawks,” he continues, “and serpents.”

“Yes,” Sasuke tells him. “We have a contract.”

“And you are bound to them by blood?”

“Show ‘im!” Hagrid says. 

Sighing, Sasuke bites his thumb and summons two of his more talkative snakes, Matsu and Rengyo. They’re also two of his most poisonous. They arrive intertwined, Rengyo’s yellow stripes layered around Matsu’s own dark green, so dark as to be almost black. 

“ _Answer their questions in human tongue,_ ” he commands, “ _but watch how much information you reveal_.”

Snakes, of course, understand secrecy. They trust no one, not even each other. 

“ _Odd creatures,_ ” Matsu murmurs, “ _Both human and not_.” 

“ _Mixed,_ ” Rengyo agrees. “ _They smell strange_.” 

“A human who speaks to snakes,” Ronan says, “and bonded three ways. My brothers foresaw your coming, but our understanding was muddled—your being is stretched.” 

“Master is bound to us by blood,” Rengyo says, switching to human speech. “And by spirit, now.” 

“By spirit?”

“Yessss,” Matsu tells him, stretching out the end of the word. “Master came to the Sage, and learned our chakra and felt our bite.”

Sasuke slides his sword back into his sheath, and switches to cleaning shuriken. His time in Ryuuchi cave had been well spent, although it wasn’t necessarily something he’d desired; Sasuke, unlike Kabuto, has never had any intention of molding himself in Orochimaru’s image. Still, those months spent immersed in the snake realm had been—cleansing, and uncomplicated. Even after mastering the use of senjutsu, Sasuke had almost wanted to stay.

Ronan spoke truly when he said that Sasuke’s being is stretched. Sasuke’s soul tugs him in different directions, longs for the damp safety of close spaces and rock walls even as it pulls him toward the wide winds of the sky and open, empty plains. And then there is Naruto’s constant call, interrupting the only whole part of Sasuke, the part of him that demands solitude, demands peace and quiet and the raw, unprocessed feeling of spaces uninhabited by other humans.

Matsu curls around Sasuke’s arm, climbing up to his neck. Sighing, Sasuke lets Matsu in his shirt. Snakes can’t regulate their own body temperature, so his summons are greedy with Sasuke’s warmth, wanting close to his skin. It’s something he’s learned to tolerate; at the very least, it helps keep the civilians away from him. Snakes are feared here, even more so than in his own world. 

Rengyo wants in, too, and Sasuke collects his weapons, standing up a little uncomfortably with two snakes slithering inside his shirt. 

Ronan bows. “Thank you, Sasuke.”

Sasuke grunts, and Ronan takes off, waving goodbye to Hagrid as well.

Hagrid walks towards the castle with Sasuke, and invites Sasuke in for tea. He starts to decline, but Naruto’s chakra spikes strangely, and Sasuke changes his mind. He’s taken tea with Hagrid a few times, now. For some reason, the man follows Sasuke around almost as much as Naruto, always showing up at strange times when Sasuke is training in the forest or patrolling the grounds. Sasuke doesn’t really understand, but he suspects Hagrid is just interested in his summons. He was especially taken with Garuda, who’d been impressed with his size. 

“ _A very large human,_ ” Garuda had boomed, approvingly, and Hagrid had nearly fallen over in delight. 

Hagrid pours a generous helping of liquor into Sasuke’s tea, served in a mug as big as Sasuke’s head. He winks as he passes it over, and Sasuke thanks him. He offers some sort of cake to go with it, but Sasuke has learned by now not to eat the man’s food. 

Hagrid babbles on about a giant spider named Aragog, who’d apparently died before their war. Sasuke nods and grunts at the appropriate times, thinking of the giant spiders he’d fought in the forest a week or so ago. Good taijutsu practice, that. 

Sasuke is just finishing his tea when Naruto comes busting in. 

“Sasuke!” he cries, looking astonished. “You made a friend!” 

Sasuke considers this for a moment, then goes back to his tea. The only friend he has left is Naruto; there is no room in Sasuke for anyone else. Still, Hagrid is tolerable. His size and affinity for animals reminds Sasuke of Juugo, and he doesn’t bother Sasuke unnecessarily. He seems to understand when Sasuke is willing to put up with his presence, and when he should be left alone. 

Juugo, too, had seemed to have some sort of understanding of Sasuke’s shifting moods. He’d often come to sit beside Sasuke in the mornings, before Karin and Suigetsu awoke, and watch the sun come over the horizon. As the sun climbed higher, Juugo chattered with the birds, while Sasuke contemplated plans for the future, or thoughts of the past. It didn’t seem to matter to Juugo which way the wind blew for Sasuke; even after the war’s end, when Sasuke’s plans changed so quickly and so drastically, Juugo had taken Sasuke’s orders to heart. 

Naruto’s hand on his wrist interrupts Sasuke from his musings. “Come eat with me, Sasuke! You never eat lunch, you’re not even eating lunch now and Hagrid said he tried to give you some! And you’ve been drinking, I can smell it.” 

Naruto rounds on Hagrid as that registers. “Stop giving him that!” 

Sasuke stands up. “Fine. Lunch, then.”

“Yes!” Naruto fist pumps with the same hand that’s attached to Sasuke’s wrist, jerking Sasuke’s arm into the air. 

Sasuke jabs Naruto in the side with his elbow, automatically pulling out a kunai and pushing himself into a more defensible position, with a clear view of everyone in the room, including the dog. Matsu and Rengyo stir, looking for threats. 

“Whoa, whoa!” Naruto cries. “Sorry, Sasuke, I didn’t mean to snatch your arm like that, but it’s okay, you know? Just me and Hagrid. And Hagrid’s dog. So you can put up your kunai, okay?”

Sasuke slips his kunai back into his pocket, feeing slightly embarrassed for some reason. It’s the alcohol, he decides. It always leaves him feeling a little unbalanced. 

“You’re so twitchy,” Naruto says, pulling Sasuke in for a half-hug, one arm around his waist. “You really need to sleep, you know? You’d feel better. More importantly, I’d feel better, because you’d quit almost murdering me by accident.”

He turns to Hagrid, still keeping his hold on Sasuke. “He almost electrocuted me last night, you know! You would not believe the shit I put up with, really.”

“He’s jus’ a little tetchy,” Hagrid says. “Nothin’ ter worry yerself over.” 

Irritated, Sasuke wrenches himself out of Naruto’s hold and stalks out of the cabin. Naruto comes running up behind him. 

“And don’t think I didn’t notice you have snakes in your shirt again! That’s weird, Sasuke. I know you said they like the castle, but you’re not even in the castle! And there was even one in the bed when I woke up the other morning. I like my toads, but you don’t see me bringing them to bed with me!” 

Sasuke snorts. “I’d hope not, dead last. I’m not sure you’re the right species for that kind of relationship.”

“You—you—ugh!” Naruto splutters. “Who do you think you are, you asshole! You’re about five seconds away from getting pummeled into the ground!”

Sasuke just keeps walking, Naruto fuming indignantly behind him. From inside Sasuke’s shirt, Rengyo is laughing, making a wheezy, half-hissing noise against Sasuke’s chest.

Naruto is finished grumbling by the time they get up their room, where food is already waiting on the table. Sasuke picks at his, mostly just stirring it around. He’s not that hungry, and very little of the food in this place seems to sit well in his stomach. There’s some plain rice, at least, and Sasuke makes an attempt at that. 

After lunch, and his regularly scheduled lecture from Naruto about eating more, Naruto brings up his genjutsu idea from the night before.

“Come on,” he whines, “You said you’d think about it! Just show me something. A good memory! The happiest one you can think of. But pick one I don’t already know about!” 

Sasuke sighs heavily. He dismisses Matsu and Rengyo, then activates his Sharingan, trying to think of a memory that’s both happy and doesn’t include Naruto.

He ends up showing Naruto the afternoon when he’d signed the contract with Garuda. His vision had been very bad at the time, so the picture is fuzzy, but the important details are there. 

The genjutsu starts with Garuda leaving, and Sasuke twirling one of his feathers in his fingers. Juugo appears from the shadows, birds nesting in his hair and perched on his shoulders, talking softly to a squirrel on his elbow. 

“Almost time,” he murmurs, and Sasuke grunts. 

“Little guy says there’s a creek back that way, if you want to get a bath in before we go.” 

Sasuke nods, and they head for the creek together. The water is cold, but not unbearably so, and when they’re finished, they get dressed on the bank and Juugo befriends a swan. The bird is beautiful and proud, all white with a long, arching neck, and she hisses at Sasuke, but still allows him relatively close. 

“She’ll have cygnets soon,” Juugo says. “She warned me away from her eggs.”

Juugo pulls bread out of his pocket for her. 

“Swans mate for life,” he tells Sasuke. “Hers is just down the creek, getting them something to eat. They built their nest too far downstream last year, and it got swept away. Better eating there, but the tides are dangerous.” 

Sasuke reaches out to pet the swan, and she extends her neck for him. Her feathers are thick and glossy. 

“She says you smell like hawk,” Juugo says, sounding amused.

One corner of Sasuke’s mouth turns up in a smile. 

They head back towards camp, where they can already hear Karin and Suigetsu fighting. It’s getting later, and the next day, they’ll be heading for the Kage’s Summit. 

“You don’t have to come,” Sasuke finds himself saying. 

Juugo rests a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, just briefly. “I know,” he says, and the genjutsu ends with Sasuke holding Garuda’s feather tight in one damp fist. 

Naruto blinks a few times, mouth widening in a bright smile. “Well, that was nice, I guess! All the birds and stuff. Juugo seems so cool! I never knew you were such an animal person before all this.” 

“I’m not,” Sasuke tells him.

“Sure you aren’t,” Naruto grins. “You just spend all your time with snakes and birds and stuff.” 

Sasuke narrows his eyes at him, but Naruto just jumps up, still beaming. “Come on, Sasuke, let’s take a nap! Well, you can take a nap, and I’ll lay down with you, at least. And then we can go downstairs for dinner, maybe!”

Sasuke lets Naruto guide him towards the bed. They lay down on their sides, facing each other. Naruto’s hair is flopping into his face around his forehead protector. 

“Your hair’s longer,” Sasuke tells him.

Naruto laughs. “Yeah, I know. I need to get it cut! I’m not very good at haircuts, though. Usually I make Sakura do it for me now, but she’s not here.”

Sasuke usually just pulls his hair into a knot and chops the worst of it off with a kunai. No one’s given Sasuke a haircut since he was very young. 

Naruto sighs lightly, bringing a hand up to Sasuke’s cheek. His fingers are warm against Sasuke’s skin.

“Hermione said we should talk about it after, but I don’t really know what to talk about,” he admits. “Was that really the happiest memory you could think of? I mean, it wasn’t sad or anything, but it wasn’t that happy, really.” 

Sasuke frowns. “You said it had to be a memory you weren’t in.” 

Naruto turns bright, bright red, his whole face scrunching up, and pulls Sasuke to his chest. Sasuke stiffens, but Naruto just hugs him tighter. 

“Fuck, Sasuke,” he says, and his voice is muffled against Sasuke’s hair. “You know you’re my best friend, right? I mean, you really, really are. I’m so glad you’re home, fuck, you were gone for so long, Sasuke, and I—” he cuts himself off, squeezing Sasuke so tightly he can barely breathe. 

Sasuke wriggles free, but when Naruto tugs him so his head is lying on Naruto’s chest, he lets himself rest, and lets Naruto card his fingers through his hair. 

What feels like a long, long time ago now, Sasuke had shoved his arm through Naruto’s chest and gone to Orochimaru. He’d always known that there would be a price to pay for the power he wanted; for the Uchiha, especially, there was always a price. He’d attempted to pay that price with Naruto, first, severed that bond as thoroughly as he could manage, and when he’d made it to Orochimaru, he’d paid the price with himself. When Orochimaru took Sasuke into his bedroom that first time, Sasuke thought to himself, _too late to turn back now_. He thought, _nothing comes free_. 

Afterwards, Sasuke had stared at himself in the mirror and wondered what Naruto would think, if he could see Sasuke then. As if Naruto would ever know. As if it would matter if he did. 

Sasuke is covered in scars, now, a thousand mementos of all the prices he’s paid and the burdens he’s carried. But Naruto doesn’t scar—even his chest is smooth and unblemished, as if that first betrayal had never happened. It seems wrong, somehow, that the evidence is gone, and Sasuke doesn’t understand how Naruto can look at Sasuke the way he does, like Sasuke is all there is for him. When Sasuke shoved his fist straight through Naruto’s lung, he meant to kill him. Anyone else would have died. 

Naruto shifts, a little, bringing the blankets higher up around Sasuke, his fingers trailing absentmindedly over Sasuke’s back.

“Go to sleep,” he commands, but his voice is soft. “I can hear you thinking.” 

Sasuke thinks of Itachi saying, _You don’t have to forgive me_ , and he thinks of waking up in the hospital with Naruto in his bed. Sasuke is so, so tired, and sometimes it feels like Naruto is the only thing holding him here, like the seal pulsing so contentedly on his arm is the only thing that keeps him moving. He thinks of that last battle, Sasuke screaming and crying and a thousand different shades of fucked up, and Naruto just listening, just there, all of his promises unspoken in the background: _I’ll bring you home_ and _I’ll bear your hatred_ and _I’ll die with you, Sasuke_. 

They never did close the window last night, and the sounds from outside drift in with the wind. Sasuke falls asleep with Naruto’s arm warm and heavy around his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because bros love to cuddle, haha. So I have two housekeeping notes to address! 1. I changed the number of chapters to a question mark, because I am way off my original 10-chapter outline, so I'm not sure yet how many extra chapters it will take to get up to speed. 2. Concerning the implied Orochimaru/Sasuke: from the way Orochimaru acts in canon, this just seems so, so likely to me. It's not a major plot point at all, but it comes into play later in that it contributes to Sasuke's fucked up worldview. Also, I'd like to note that from Sasuke's perspective, everything was "consensual," because he agreed to it. (Obviously he was too young. Just, no. But he doesn't see it that way.) 
> 
> So, anyways, thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you thought! Comments are super motivating and I really appreciate the feedback. Also, if there's something you're really hoping to see in this story, feel free to let me know--some things fit, and some things don't, but it doesn't hurt to ask, and if it makes sense with my outline then I will try to incorporate it!


	5. The Restricted Section

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto hangs out with snakes, stalks Draco, and discovers a magic bathroom. Sasuke is severely sleep deprived.

One of Naruto’s shadow clones bursts, and just like that, Naruto discovers the existence of the greatest bathroom in the world. It’s huge, like a bathhouse, but there’s not a sauna or anything, just the biggest bath Naruto has ever seen in his life. It’s surrounded by like, a million taps, and they all do different things—bubbles, colored water, even some sort of girly glittery shit. Apparently, one of the clones he had tailing Draco found it by following him in there.

Further review of his new memories reveals that the bathroom is actually a _secret_ bathroom, hidden behind a magic statue with a password and everything. Also, it’s totally not on Naruto’s map.

Grumbling to himself about the map, Naruto wipes dirt off his hands and onto his pants. He hasn’t had an actual bath since before he left Konoha, because the tiny bathroom he shares with Sasuke here doesn’t even have a bathtub at all, much less a magic one. Not that he had one at home, but there was a bathhouse in Konoha, at least.

Naruto walks up the side of the castle towards his window. He can feel Sasuke somewhere deep in the forest, apparently patrolling. Sasuke hasn’t slept in days, and his chakra is as rigid and tense as a snake coiled to strike.

He climbs in through the window and grabs a quick bite to eat, followed by a shower and clean clothes. He’s been training all afternoon, nothing exciting, just keeping in shape. Sasuke’s so on edge that it’s making Naruto restless, antsy and itching for a good fight, but he knows sparring is a bad idea. They haven’t sparred much since the war’s end, anyway. It’s hard for Naruto to fight Sasuke seriously, now, not without seeing Sasuke’s face like it was in that last battle—open and desperate in a way Sasuke is never supposed to be.

Naruto sits down at the little wooden table to finish his letter to Iruka, to be sent with the report he wrote up the night before. He feels a pressure around his left ankle, and he looks down to see one of Sasuke’s snakes, a constrictor with orange-red eyes.

“Oh, hey, Yoyu! What’s up?”

Naruto is a little creeped out by the snakes, but he tries to be friendly. They’re just weird, with all the hissing and slinking around. Also, they don’t have legs, and Naruto is a firm believer in having legs. Except not too many, because that’s creepy, too.

“Hello.” Yoyu continues making his way up Naruto’s leg.

“You come from the forest? What’s Sasuke up to, huh?”

Yoyu eyes him distrustfully from his spot on Naruto’s knee. “Master is with Susumu.”

Naruto suppresses a shudder. Susumu, now that’s a creepy ass snake. Huge and black and red, wide and low to the ground in a way that makes him look strangely flat. His eyes are too big for his head, and they look too—too human, for a snake. It just creeps Naruto out. Also, Naruto once saw him swallow a deer whole, and he could still see the deer kicking around inside of him even after it had been eaten. It practically gave Naruto flashbacks of being eaten by Orochimaru’s giant snake back in the day.

Yoyu curls up on the table, apparently having come up just to bask in the sun. Naruto turns back to his letter. He’s trying to figure out how to word what he wants to ask, which is basically just how to help Sasuke with his nightmares and stuff, but without saying that at all and especially without saying it’s about Sasuke. Sasuke won’t sleep, won’t eat, and it’s stressing Naruto out. Naruto even went down to the kitchens, now that he finally knows where they are—no thanks to his useless map—and asked the house-elves to send up all the boring things that Sasuke likes: plain rice; white, dry chicken; sliced, unseasoned vegetables and tomatoes. It helped a little, but not much.

Naruto rubs his temples, letting out a long sigh. When Naruto said that he hurt for Sasuke, he meant it. Naruto knows—he knows—that Sasuke has been hurt over and over and over again, and that Sasuke woke up every morning for the better part of ten years believing that he would have to bear his burdens alone, no matter how impossible the weight. Years and years of that have left Sasuke bitter and maimed, and Naruto feels that knowledge like a knife to the gut.

For a long time, Naruto believed that he and Sasuke were the same, brothers and orphans together. When Sasuke told Naruto that because he’d never known the family he’d lost, he would never be alone in the same way as Sasuke was, Naruto hadn’t understood. And he still isn’t sure that Sasuke was right when he said it was worse to lose something than to never have it at all. But Naruto understands what Sasuke was saying in a different way, now. It’s not that Sasuke’s situation has always been worse than Naruto’s; it’s that Sasuke has spent his life losing what Naruto has been gaining. All the love and family and happiness that Naruto has found—Sasuke has watched it all be ripped away. And like Kakashi said, it doesn’t matter whose fault it was, whether it was Sasuke’s fault or Konoha’s fault or somewhere in between. That’s just how it is, now. All Naruto can do is try to help things along, try to help Sasuke and Konoha and everyone else as they all struggle to build a better world together.

Yoyu rolls around, and Naruto scratches at his belly for a moment. He ends up telling Iruka that he’s worried about the kid he’s guarding, which is actually pretty true, and that he can’t just beat him up and make him eat and sleep and stuff because he’s a civilian and Naruto doesn’t beat up civilians unless he really has to.

Folding up his letter, Naruto gets up, Yoyu moving to take up the left over space. Naruto puts the letter with his report on the bedside table, so one of Sasuke’s hawks can take it back to Konoha.

Another clone bursts, and Naruto sees that Draco is in the library, holed up in the very back right corner. Unless he’s hiding in the tower where the kids go to look at the stars, he’s usually in the library if he’s not in his room. He’s a very boring charge, although Naruto worries about the kid. He’s too skinny, and there’s something very sad about him—he’s so pale, with soft, stilted movements, and one of Naruto’s clones caught him crying in the bath earlier. He couldn’t say anything, because Draco doesn’t know that Naruto is following him, but at this rate Naruto is probably going to have to break cover.

Kakashi always says that Naruto sucks at undercover work, and at being stealthy and staying hidden and stuff, but that’s not totally true. Naruto knows _how_ to do all of those things, it’s just that usually, he doesn’t see why it’s more important to stay hidden than it is to step up and do the right thing.

Naruto decides to find Draco and keep an eye on him more personally.

“See you later, Yoyu!”

The snake just blinks lazily at him, and Naruto snorts. Snakes. They seem scary at first, but really, they don’t do much except lie around and sleep.

Naruto leaves the room and heads for the library, waving at random students. He doesn’t actually know that many people here, which isn’t usually how it goes, but Naruto’s been pretty busy between training and patrolling and keeping an eye on Sasuke, so he hasn’t had a lot of time to make friends. He’s been hanging out with Hermione some, though, and the professors are all pretty nice.

He henges into a bug right before he gets to the library, and sticks to the edges of the room as he makes his way to Draco. With some disappointment, he notes that Hermione isn’t at her usual table right in the middle.

He finds Draco curled up in the window seat this time instead of the corner table he usually likes. The stained glass has him lit up in different colors, blue and red and rose-gold all across, and he’s got a book in his lap that’s practically as big as he is. Naruto doesn’t understand where anyone gets the patience to read that much.

As Naruto gets settled in, he realizes he can hear Hermione’s voice, if just barely. Looking around, he realizes that she must be in the part of the library that’s gated off, filled with strange books that whisper and move on their own. That’s dark magic, Naruto knows, and it makes him uncomfortable. Dark chakra doesn’t usually bother Naruto; it’s powerful, toxic, but it isn’t any different than regular chakra, really, except that it can be lethal if you’re not strong enough to handle it. Dark magic, on the other hand, feels wrong, like a dead thing brought to life, oily and tainted and strange. It tempts and charms, as sickly-sweet as rotten fruit.

Naruto wonders what Hermione is doing in there, and he channels chakra to his ears, trying to find out.

“I couldn’t find anything in the main library,” she’s saying, “so I’ve been doing some research, well, in here,” and there’s the quiet thump of books hitting stone.

One of the books shrieks, and Hermione shushes it.

“Blimey, that thing’s loud,” another voice complains, and Naruto realizes that Ron is in there with her.

“I haven’t found much—no references to anything he mentioned—but I found a few references to the technique he used. This is all Western magic, for the most part, but I’m almost certain they’re using Eastern magic of some sort. Considering their names, well, it just seems the most likely.”

“Can’t we just, you know, look them up or something?”

Hermione snorts. “Eastern magic is speculated to be quite different from ours, Ron, and their world is very secretive. Professor Slughorn tells me that the magical community there prefers to remain completely isolated from the rest of the world—most Asian countries even refused invitations to the International Confederation of Wizards, if they responded at all.”

“Well, if they’re so secret, why are they here now?”

“Exactly, Ron. That’s what you’re trying to find out. I talked this over with Harry, and he says the Minister is concerned about security, but there’s just not a lot of manpower to spare to look into it. And of course, you know that after I’ve gotten my NEWTs I’ll be moving into the Ministry as a clerk, so I’ve obviously been reading up on the legal side of things. I think that as we continue to implement reforms, this could be a great diplomatic opportunity. Half the battle is just establishing contact in the first place.”

“I mean, I don’t know about that, Hermione. Naruto seems pretty okay, but I’m worried about the other guy, Sasuke. You know he’s the same age as us? He just doesn’t act right, that’s all I’m saying. Imagine a whole country filled with people like that.”

Naruto reels back, realizing that Hermione and Ron are talking about him and Sasuke. He starts to go set them both straight—Naruto isn’t from any of the countries in their world, after all, and there aren’t that many people like Sasuke in the first place—but then he remembers about watching Draco. He glances over to see him asleep with his mouth open. His neck is tilted at an awkward angle, and Naruto’s own neck twinges in sympathy.

He goes back to eavesdropping, but Hermione is explaining something and using words like “transfiguration” and “wandlore.” Naruto decides to tune that out, and turns back to watching Draco.

He’d asked Hermione about the guy, and she hadn’t said much, only that he’d been caught up on the wrong side of the war, and had switched over at the last minute. His parents were still alive and everything, but he’d lived with their bad guy, Voldemort, for a long time. Hermione thought he was probably still pretty torn up about everything.

“The war was hard on everyone,” she’d told him, “even Malfoy. He’s not that bad, really.”

Naruto doesn’t think Draco seems good or bad. Mostly, he’s just quiet.

He’s debating with himself about whether or not to wake the kid up, and whether he should drop in on Hermione and Ron and say hi, when he feels Sasuke’s chakra flare once, and then start heading towards the castle very quickly.

Naruto creates another shadow clone to take his spot and dispels the henge disguising him as a bug. He’s half-way to Sasuke before he even realizes it.

They end up meeting in McGonagall’s office, Naruto bursting in through the door just as Sasuke opens the window. McGonagall is standing up, with Kingsley sitting in an armchair, and they’re both listening to a portrait of some old guy with a long beard. They all turn to face the door, apparently not even noticing Sasuke coming in from the outside. McGonagall raises a questioning eyebrow.

“Oh, uh, hey guys! Sorry to bother you, but something’s going on, I guess.” He turns to Sasuke, who is now fully in the room, and has an unconscious man slung over his shoulder.

“Who’s that?” Naruto asks.

The wizards all jump when they notice Sasuke, and Naruto snorts. Sasuke wasn’t _that_ quiet. They at least should have heard the window open.

Sasuke drops the man on McGonagall’s desk. “I found this in the forest.”

“Er, you found him? Is that a bad guy or what?”

Sasuke fixes Naruto with a blank look. His chakra feels like a sea at the edge of winter, restless and roiling under the ice.

“He doesn’t match any of the pictures,” he says, finally.

Naruto waits for him to explain what happened, but he doesn’t. Sighing, Naruto comes closer to inspect the guy. He just looks like a regular civilian, as far as Naruto can tell. No weapons or anything, unless they’re very well hidden.

Kingsley steps forward. “If I may,” he murmurs, “I’d like to take a look.”

Naruto turns the guy’s face so Kingsley can see it, and Kingsley’s lips twist.

“He’s one of mine,” he explains. “An Auror. Proudfoot has been stationed in Hogsmeade as protection for the school, although I wasn’t aware his patrols extended so close to Hogwarts.”

Naruto frowns. “What happened, Sasuke? Did the guy attack you or what? I know you were in the forest.”

Instead of answering, Sasuke hisses out something in snake tongue.

“What the fuck, Sasuke,” Naruto gets out, exasperated. Why can’t Sasuke just answer his questions?

Sasuke’s face stays expressionless and smooth, but Naruto catches the subtle twitch of his fingers. Sasuke has to be exhausted, hasn’t slept at all for at least four days, pushing on five, now. Naruto doesn’t think he’s turned the Sharingan off in all that time; even now, his eyes are red, tomoe spinning slowly. At least he’s hiding the Rinnegan again.

Kingsley opens his mouth, but Naruto holds a hand up, cutting off whatever he was going to say. In the background, McGonagall looks on, her face pinched and inscrutable.

“Did he attack you?” Naruto asks, again.

“Yes.” Sasuke pulls a stick out of his pocket, obviously Proudfoot’s wand. He holds it out, and Kingsley takes it with a quiet acknowledgment.  When he gets close, Sasuke clenches his fist and pulls it in tight, very obviously preventing himself from reaching for a weapon.  

Naruto lets a long breath pass through his lips. It’s a miracle that Sasuke didn’t just kill the guy, instead of knocking him out.

“Well, probably just a misunderstanding, then!” Naruto exclaims, trying to relieve some of the tension in the room. “Hey, Kingsley, what are you doing here, huh? I thought you had a big government job, why are you hanging out at school all the time?”

Kingsley smiles, a little strained. “Business.”

Naruto pulls a face. “Uh, sorry. Anyway, you’ll probably wanna check this guy out, if he’s not supposed to be in the forest. Something might be up, I don’t know. Do you people know how to check for genjutsu? Can civilians do that?”

“There were signs of tampering,” Sasuke says, looking a little more like himself.

“Tampering! What? Why didn’t you say so before? How did you know?”

Sasuke cuts his eyes at Naruto. Oh, right. The Sharingan.

“Can you fix it?”

Sasuke arches an imperious brow. “Do I look like a medic?”

Naruto can’t help but imagine it. He laughs. Sasuke’s bedside manner would be even worse than Sakura’s, and Naruto is pretty sure she’s caused irreversible damage by beating on him all the damn time.

McGonagall steps forward, finally, and takes Proudfoot’s pulse. She eyes Sasuke warily.

“He’s just unconscious?”

Sasuke nods, almost imperceptibly.

“Best get him in Auror custody, then.” She turn sharply to face Kingsley. “I’ll have a house-elf fetch Mr. Weasley. Minister, if you will?”

He nods, pulling his wand out of his pocket. McGonagall rings a tiny bell.

Naruto waves. “We’ll just get going, then! Things to do, you know. Let me know if you have any questions or whatever. See you guys later!”

He grabs Sasuke and pulls them both out the window before anyone can say anything else. As soon as they’re out on the castle walls, Sasuke jerks away and takes off. This time, Naruto runs after him. Sasuke is faster, but he can’t hide, not from Naruto, not anymore.

Sasuke stops right at the edge of the forest, perched on a tall, weathered stone. Susumu comes slithering out of his shirt, dropping to the rock below as he assumes his regular size. Naruto watches from several yards away, trying to think of the right words to say.

Slowly, Sasuke turns to face him, eyes still red with the Sharingan, Susumu curled contentedly around his legs. There’s something in the movement that reminds Naruto of fighting Itachi; the strange stillness that haunts him, even as he moves, or maybe just the hard, cold gaze of a man who has long since been pushed past his limits.

Naruto thinks of the nightmare that started this bout of sleeplessness, thinks of Sasuke waking up gasping, fire already on his tongue. Thinks of the way he’d looked at Naruto, after—like he was seeing straight through him.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, and the name comes out more quietly than he’d planned.

Sasuke doesn’t say anything, but Susumu turns his eyes on Naruto, and again, Naruto is struck with the realization that Susumu’s eyes are too human; they’re pale and milky like the Byakugan, and if not for their size, Naruto would be sure that they’d been harvested from somebody’s corpse.

“Master is very tired,” Susumu rasps out, eventually.

“I know,” Naruto says, and he does know. “Ask him if he’ll come back with me. We can rest.”

Susumu hisses something, long and slow and sibilant, and Sasuke answers him in the same tongue.

Naruto plays with a kunai while he waits, spinning it around between his fingers. He wants to bring Sasuke to the bath he’d discovered earlier that day, but he’s not sure he can get Sasuke to go for it. Maybe later.

Sasuke steps down from his rock, and Naruto takes that as an invitation to come closer. Sasuke’s hair is as wild as always, wilder now with the wind whipping through it, and his face is drawn and tired, if you know what to look for: the tiny creases at the sides of his eyes, the sagging line of his lips.

Without thinking, Naruto wraps Sasuke’s hands in his own. His fingers are cold against Naruto’s.

“Damn it, Sasuke, your fingers are fucking cold. You need gloves. And a jacket.”

Sasuke just grunts. At least he’s not ignoring Naruto totally.

“Come on, come on, let’s go inside. It’s cold, you’re cold, I mean, I’m not cold, but I probably will be if we keep standing here.” He pulls Sasuke along, heading for their room. “It’s way too early in the year for it to be getting cold already. I don’t think I even brought a cloak.”

Sasuke doesn’t pull away, and his steps are uneven, fast and then slow. Naruto is kind of worried that he’s just going to fall over. At least then he’d probably sleep.

They get back to their room without any real issues, and Naruto bullies Sasuke into getting ready for bed, although he has to use Susumu as an interpreter a couple of times. He needs to get an actual report out of Sasuke, so he can tell the civilians what’s up, and also so he can report it to Kakashi, but Sasuke doesn’t seem incredibly with it. Hopefully he’ll still remember what happened after he’s had a chance to rest.

Naruto thinks of the last time Sasuke slept peacefully, laid out on Naruto’s chest after they tried his genjutsu idea. The memory strikes something deeply, painfully tender inside him, and he has the same urge to gather Sasuke close to him, to feel the realness of him under Naruto’s hands.

“Let’s try the genjutsu thing again,” Naruto decides. “You slept after that last time, and that was a good memory, wasn’t it? With Juugo and everything?”

Naruto likes Juugo, he’s sure of it, now. He thinks about the way Juugo was when he visited, content to remain silent and steady in the background. Naruto wishes he could find people like that for Sasuke in Konoha, people who could do their own thing close by while Sasuke has alone time in trees and on rooftops like he seems to need. Naruto doesn’t know how to be friends with someone from a distance, and even if he did, that’s not the kind of friendship he wants with Sasuke. But it’s something he wants Sasuke to have, all the same.

Sasuke doesn’t answer, but Naruto feels firmer in his decision, now, thinking of the way genjutsu-Sasuke had looked when he leaned in towards that swan, the way his fingers had curled around the feather in his palm without him even noticing.

“Hey, hey, Sasuke. Come on, let’s get in bed,” Naruto’s voice is quiet, but it feels loud against Sasuke’s silence. “And let’s try the genjutsu, okay? Maybe it’ll help you sleep. Something good, again, a happy memory, or a peaceful one, I guess, since that’s what you went with last time.” He guides Sasuke into the bed, arranges them so that they’re sitting cross-legged and facing each other. Naruto remembers what Hermione told him, about starting out easy and working your way up to the hard stuff, and decides to clarify.

“Pick something from when you were a kid this time, maybe.”

Naruto thinks about what Sasuke said last time, about not having happy memories that Naruto wasn’t in. It left Naruto feeling raw, like Sasuke stripped him right down to his insides, but it was a good kind of raw. The kind that makes chasing Sasuke to the ends of the earth worth it.

“Okay?” he asks, because Sasuke hasn’t said anything yet. Sasuke nods, a quick jerk of the head, before Naruto spins into a memory that isn’t his.

In the genjutsu, Sasuke is very, very small, with wide, dark eyes and pale little hands. He’s stomping around in the river in his bare feet while an old lady washes her hands and hums softly under her breath.

“Aunt Otsune,” Sasuke cries. “Look what I found!”

He’s holding up a salamander, all wet and slimy and black with orange splotches. “A lizard! A wet one, Aunt Otsune!”

“Hmm,” the old lady says. “That’s a salamander, Sasuke. It’s a kind of lizard that likes the water.”

“I know about salamanders,” Sasuke tells her. “I saw one crawl out of the fire when I was camping with brother and Shisui. I didn’t know they lived in the water too!” He waves the salamander around, its legs flailing wildly as it struggles to escape.

“Careful, Sasuke,” the old lady murmurs. “Hold him gently.”

Sasuke cradles the salamander, and the lady guides his fingers to rest lightly on its stomach.

“Do you feel that, Sasuke?”

“Its pulse!” He says. “Like Mama showed me!”

“That’s right,” she says. “It’s alive just like me and you and your Mama. Now let the salamander go back to his business.”

Sasuke lets the salamander down into the water, and it darts away, hidden by the reeds. “Are salamanders a part of everything, too, like you said before?”

“Yes, Sasuke.”

“What about trees? What about Shisui?”

“Yes.” She reaches for Sasuke’s hand, and they leave the river together, walking up to a shrine. “We all fit into the same great pattern, Sasuke, and in turn, a great spirit resides in all of us.”

She pauses at the steps to the shrine, sitting on the edge of the bottom step. A bird caws sharply overhead; a crow. The old lady presses her hand against the ground, into the well-kept grass at the edge of the shrine, and Sasuke follows suit.

“What do you feel?”

Sasuke squints, face scrunched up in concentration. “The grass is wet.”

“And below that?”

“The dirt is kinda squishy.”

“And below that?”

Sasuke presses his hand harder into the grass, and the memory grows strange, like everything is happening very far away. Naruto sees only darkness, hears nothing but the dry rasp of snake scales and a low, constant hiss. Still, he understands it.

_Press your hand to the earth_ , a voice tells him, and Naruto, only vaguely aware that this is still a genjutsu, follows suit.

_Feel the thrum_ , the voice instructs. _Open your chakra to the great web_.

Naruto feels himself slipping into Sage Mode, becomes aware of many, many snakes surrounding him, their chakra heavy and dark. The earth is damp below his palm. His awareness twists and blurs, and he feels as if he is succumbing, as if something is calling out to him, pulling him into darkness. The snakes disappear, and he hears Orochimaru’s voice crooning Sasuke’s name, feels Orochimaru’s tongue pressing into his mouth and down his throat, thick and slimy and unwanted, cutting off his air. For one brief, terrifying moment, Naruto is certain that he will never breathe again.

The genjustsu breaks apart with the sound of a thousand birds taking flight, and Naruto is thrown back into the room to see Sasuke’s hands lit up with lightning. It’s hard to breathe, and Naruto chokes, like there really was a tongue down his throat.

He holds up his hands, trying not to cough. “Whoa, whoa, Sasuke! It’s okay, it was just a genjutsu, you’re fine!”

Sasuke sends Chidori shooting out through the window, and Naruto wheezes into his elbow and hopes that none of the civilians were out there to get hit. He keeps his hands where Sasuke can see them, his movements slow and non-threatening.

“Come on, Sasuke,” he says, when he can breathe properly again. “It’s okay, it’s just you and me.”

Sasuke’s breath is coming too fast, and Naruto really, really should have gotten Sasuke to sleep before this. It’s just been so hard, because Naruto really can’t force Sasuke to do anything without starting a fight around hundreds of defenseless civilians. Not to mention that it takes an outrageous amount of sedative to keep Sasuke out even for a little while (Naruto remembers Sakura complaining about it in Konoha), so it’s not like he can just slip something into Sasuke’s food. If Sasuke would eat anything, that is.

Sasuke seems to calm down a little, and Naruto coaxes him back onto the bed, gets him to lie down. He curls up onto his side, facing away from Naruto, but Naruto curls up behind him, pulls an arm across Sasuke’s chest. He can feel Sasuke’s heart racing, still.

Susumu comes slithering up into bed with them, and Naruto tries to ignore him, which is hard because the snake takes up most of the mattress and some of the floor. He hisses something at Sasuke, but Sasuke doesn’t answer him, either. That makes Naruto feel strangely better about the whole situation.

The genjutsu, Naruto decides, did not make any sense. Well, actually, it mostly just sounded like training to enter Sage Mode, except the first part was like, Sage Mode for kids, and the next bit was probably from when Sasuke trained with the snakes. The whole thing basically fell apart at the end, though, and Naruto doesn’t know what to make of it. Maybe asking Sasuke to put him in a genjutsu when Sasuke hadn’t slept in almost five days wasn’t that great of an idea after all.

Sasuke is still tense, and Naruto rubs his hand along Sasuke’s side, trying to get him to loosen up. He’s not sure if he should try to get Sasuke to talk or not.

Sasuke wriggles around a little, and Naruto decides to give it a shot.

“Who was the old lady?” he asks. “In your memory.”

Susumu stirs briefly, and Sasuke breathes in and out.

“My great-great aunt,” Sasuke says, eventually.

“Okay, okay,” Naruto says. “Two greats, that’s pretty old. She seemed cool. Did you hang out with her a lot?”

“Yes,” and this time Sasuke flips over so that he’s on his stomach, with his face buried in his pillow. Naruto keeps an arm over his back.

“You were pretty cute as a kid, you know,” Naruto teases. Sasuke just grunts, but it’s true. Naruto kind of wants to snatch child-Sasuke up and keep him that way. He wonders what Sasuke would be like, if he’d grown up properly. He can’t really imagine Sasuke being adorable like that even when they were genin.

Sasuke settles in, and Susumu curls around them so that he’s encircling the bed completely.

“Master,” Susumu says, flicking his tail idly, “I will keep watch.”

Susumu is still creepy, but Naruto guesses he’s pretty okay. Naruto doesn’t understand Sasuke’s thing with snakes, because Naruto isn’t like this with his toads at all, but then again, Naruto didn’t spend three months in a cave with only snakes for company, so he can’t judge. Anyway, if Susumu can get Sasuke to sleep, then Naruto will love him forever, snake or not.

Sasuke turns his head so that it’s facing Naruto, but the rest of him stays face down. Naruto gives in to the urge to trace his fingers along Sasuke’s spine.

Naruto thinks about when Sasuke said Naruto was the only light in his life. Naruto doesn’t know how to be that for anyone, doesn’t know how to fix Sasuke or anybody else, but he wants to so, so bad. He’s trying so hard, but he doesn’t know how to stop Sasuke from feeling like this.

He misses the days when he could just punch the bastard in the face and try to knock the stupid out of him. But Naruto knows by now that it’s not enough, knows that with Sasuke, at least, nothing has ever come that easily. They already had their fight, and it took everything Naruto had just to get Sasuke home. The rest, Naruto guesses, has to happen in a different way. He just has to figure it out.

He thinks about what Kakashi said, about dogs, about how it might be kinder to put Sasuke out of his misery. He thinks about the dog he killed, its desperate, empty eyes and the blood dripping from its mouth, and he thinks about Kakashi saying that sometimes it’s too late, that sometimes there’s nothing to do but give them peace.

He thinks about the low, wounded noise Sasuke made after that last nightmare. Thinks about a different night, Sasuke’s hands trembling in the dark, and Sasuke saying, _I never thought I’d live this long._

Naruto digs his face into Sasuke’s shoulder. There’s a forehead protector with a scratch through it in the pocket of Naruto’s jacket, and Naruto reminds himself that he can’t give up, that he made a promise to himself that he would give that forehead protector back to a Sasuke who wanted it, to a Sasuke who wouldn’t just throw it away. And Naruto is the one who has to make that happen.

Sasuke shifts again, so that he’s lying on his side like he was before. Naruto scoots in close, so that Sasuke’s back stays pressed against him.

“Stay awake,” Sasuke tells him, his voice drowsy and slow. “Don’t sleep.”

“Okay,” Naruto promises. “I won’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the wait on this one, guys! I got too pumped about a chapter near the end and kiiind of wrote that first, so you know, distractions. Hopefully you will think this was worth the wait! It's just a little bit longer than the previous chapters. 
> 
> A note on Sasuke's great-great Aunt Otsune: she is 100% made up, but like, someone had to take care of the shrine, so that's who I decided it would be. The stuff she talks about is very, very loosely based on (my admittedly poor understanding of) Shinto, and mostly based on stuff my grandpa used to say to me when I lived with him as a kid. I thought it tied in well with the Sage Mode stuff and also with Sasuke's apparent interest in religion later in canon, since he starts wearing prayer beads during his hobo phase. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks very much for reading, and as always, let me know what you thought! It's amazing to me that people are actually reading this, haha, so know that I really do appreciate it.


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